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In an interview with Italian newspaper La Republica, on March 24 of this year, Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, the Palestine Authority's top Moslem figure in Jerusalem, decreed that the Western Wall, the last remnant of the Jewish Temple, has no religious significance to the Jews. "Let it be clear: the Wailing Wall is not a holy place of the Jews, it is an integral part of the mosque [grounds]. We call it Al-Buraq, the name of the horse with which Mohammed ascended to heaven from Jerusalem," he said.
In fact, the Temple Mount area and the Western Wall are, according to Jewish scholars, the only truly holy sites of Judaism.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat himself has made similar statements recently, claiming the city of Jerusalem has no real significance to Jews.
On Al-Jezira television, June 28, 1998, he said, "Let me tell you something. The issue of Jerusalem is not just a Palestinian issue. It is a Palestinian, Arab, Islamic, and Christian issue." Asked by the interviewer if one could also say it is a Jewish issue, he replied, "No. Allow me to be precise - they consider Hebron to be holier than Jerusalem."
Arafat is among those Arab leaders making the incredible suggestion that there was never a Jewish Temple at the site. "Until now, all the excavations that have been carried out have failed to prove the location of the Temple," he claims. "It is 30 years since they captured the city and they have not succeeded in giving even one proof as the location of the Temple." Do you really think there can be compromise with people this delusional?
This was no casual remark by Arafat. In an earlier speech broadcast on Voice of Palestine on October 10, 1996, he said, "Let us begin from the holy Buraq wall. It is called the holy Buraq wall, not the Wailing Wall. After the holy Buraq revolution in 1929... the Shaw International Committee said this is a holy wall for Moslems. This wall ends at the Via Dolorosa. These are our Christian and Moslem holy places."
Now, perhaps you understand why even today the Wakf attempt to deny Jews and other non-Moslems access to these sites. Now, perhaps you understand why, during the time when Jerusalem was occupied by Moslems, Christian churches and Jewish synagogues were destroyed or desecrated.
This alone should demonstrate conclusively to any non-biased observer that the troubles in the Middle East today will not be solved by the creation of a "Palestinian state."
It's time to point out to those who do not yet know that the leader of this movement - Arafat - is not a "Palestinian" at all. Indeed, he was born in Egypt. But his family does have some history in the area - though he's not likely to acknowledge it on ABC's Nightline or CNN.
You see, it was Arafat's uncle who served as the grand mufti of Jerusalem in the 1920s and 1930s. It was his uncle who concluded, for the first time, that Mohammed had ascended into heaven from the site known as the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. And it was his uncle who, in an unholy alliance with Adolf Hitler, condemned the Jews and their designs on their eternal capital city.
The truth is that Jerusalem has a unique importance to Jews. It has always been a place described and revered in Jewish law. For centuries since the Diaspora, Jews around the world have prayed toward Jerusalem, mourned the destruction of their Temple and hopefully repeated the phrase, "Next year in Jerusalem."