Jews have no right to Western Wall, PA 'study' says
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH The Jerusalem Post 11/22/2010 18:07
‘Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep,’ says
Information Ministry official.
The Western Wall belongs to Muslims and is an integral part of Al-Aksa
Mosque and Haram al-Sharif (the Islamic term for the Temple Mount complex,
meaning the Noble Sanctuary), according to an official paper published on
Monday by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information in Ramallah.
The paper, which has been presented as a “study,” was prepared by
Al-Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the ministry, to “refute” Jews’
claims to the Western Wall.
In the past, PA leaders and officials have also denied Jewish rights to the
Wall, insisting that the Temple Mount never stood in the area.
The new document claims that the Western Wall, or Al- Buraq Wall, as it is
known to Muslims, constitutes Waqf property owned by an Algerian- Moroccan
Muslim family.
It claims there isn’t one stone in the wall that belongs to the era of King
Solomon.
The “study” also contends that the path next to the Western Wall was never a
public road, but was established only for the use of Muslims living in the
area or making their way toward the mosques on the Temple Mount.
“The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims that it owns this wall,
which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel,” Taha, who is also a renowned
Palestinian poet and writer, wrote in his project.
“Al-Buraq Wall is in fact the western wall of Al-Aksa Mosque.”
He added that the Jews had never used the site for worship until the Balfour
Declaration of 1917.
“This wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim
tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its
destruction,” he wrote. “During the British mandate in Palestine, the number
of Jews who visited the wall increased to a point where the Muslims felt
threatened, and then there was the Al-Buraq Revolution on August 23, 1929,
where dozens of Muslims were martyred and a large number of Jews were
killed.”
Taha was referring to an Arab uprising throughout Palestine over access to
the Western Wall during which 133 Jews and 116 Arabs were killed over a few
weeks.
The author, who is affiliated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah
faction, emphasizes that over the past few decades, Jews have failed to
prove that the wall has any connection to their religion.
“Many studies published by Jewish experts have affirmed that there is no
archeological evidence that the Temple Mount was built during the period of
King Solomon,” the paper added. “One can only conclude that Al-Buraq Wall is
a Muslim wall and an integral part of the Aksa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif.
No one has the right to claim ownership over it or change its features or
original character. Also, no one has the right to agree with the occupation
state’s racist and oppressive measures against history and holy sites.”
The PA ministry’s study also warned that “no Muslim or Arab or Palestinian
had the right to give up one stone of Al-Buraq Wall or other religious
sites.”
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