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Palestinian Leaders Deny Jerusalem's Past

[Wall Street Journal] Bari Weiss - Sheik Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, chief Islamic judge of the Palestinian Authority, says that Jews have no history in the city of Jerusalem: They have never lived there and the Temple never existed. His claims would be laughable if they weren't so common among Palestinians. As President Obama gears up to propose yet another plan for Israeli-Arab peace, he would do well to notice that top Palestinian intellectual and political leaders deny basic truths. Jerusalem is the holiest city in Judaism, mentioned more than 600 times in the Hebrew Bible. Three times a day, religious Jews face toward the city when they pray. At Jewish weddings, the couple shatters a glass to acknowledge Jerusalem's still unfulfilled redemption. The Koran itself refers to Solomon's Temple as a "great place of prayer" and the first Muslims referred to Jerusalem as the "City of the Temple." In 1924 the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published a booklet stating that the Temple Mount's "identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute." Palestinian leaders insist that Jews are transplants in the region, nothing more than white European colonialists. These sentiments are echoed in Palestinian primary-school textbooks, preached at mosques, and printed in official newspapers. The Palestinian leadership is stating, in full voice, that Israel has no right to its most basic historical and religious legacy. This is no foundation for "peace talks."
2009-09-25 08:00:00
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