Moderate Mahmoud Abbas: Israel's "Judaization" is stealing Jerusalem's "cultural, human, and Islamic-Christian religious history"

Moderate Mahmoud Abbas: Israel's "Judaization" is stealing Jerusalem's "cultural, human, and Islamic-Christian religious history"

The "Palestinian" quest to destroy all evidence of an ancient Jewish presence in Jerusalem, and in Israel in general, is obviously politically motivated: they want to destroy the Jewish state, and are trying to delegitimize it to that end. But this is also of a piece with the larger Islamic tendency to delegitimize and appropriate the major figures and holy places of Judaism and Christianity in general. In the Qur'an, the Biblical prophets and Jesus are Muslim prophets who taught Islam, only to have their messages twisted and hijacked by their venal followers in order to create Judaism and Christianity. The Qur'anic view is that Judaism and Christianity are illegitimate, renegade false religions arising from the corruption of the true messages of Moses and Jesus. Abbas' statements here reflect a common Islamic supremacist tendency to deny any achievement and even any history to the Infidel, and to recognize the legitimacy only of Islam. He includes the Christians with the Muslims because he has Christians among his constituency, but they are kidding themselves if they think that they will be accorded respect and equality of rights in a "Palestinian" state.


"Mahmoud Abbas: Jerusalem only has Islamic and Christian history," by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for [1] Palestinian Media Watch, May 10 (thanks to David):

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority continue to deny Israel's 3,000 years of history in Jerusalem, claiming it is solely an Arab, Muslim and Christian city. Earlier this month, Abbas referred to Israel's presence and activities in Jerusalem as "Judaization" and stated that Israel is stealing what he called the "cultural, human, and Islamic-Christian religious history."

Last month, Abbas' advisor for Jerusalem said that Israel is trying:

"to create an artificial heritage with a Jewish spirit at the expense of its true and authentic [identity] as an Arab, Islamic and Christian city."

This is not the first time that Abbas has denied Jewish history in Jerusalem and claimed the city for Islam alone. Palestinian Media Watch has reported that Mahmoud Abbas said that taking Jerusalem from Israel is a religious Islamic obligation of the highest level, a "fard ayn" - a personal Islamic commandment incumbent on every Muslim:

"I say to the leaders of our Arab nation and to its peoples: Jerusalem and its environs are a trust that Allah entrusted to us. Saving it [Jerusalem] from the settlement monster and the danger of Judaization and [land] confiscation is a personal [Islamic] commandment [Arabic: fard ayn] incumbent on all of us. Therefore, I call all of you to serious and urgent action to save [Jerusalem] and to make available all possibilities in order to strengthen our resolve and to maintain its historical, cultural and religious character."
[Al-Jazeera TV, March 27, 2010]

In a different speech, Abbas said in 2010:

"The oppressor will not last in Jerusalem; the oppression will not endure. Victory will come, Allah willing. This land is Allah's best land, for which He chooses the finest of His believers, as it is written in the words of the Prophet [Muhammad]."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 11, 2010]

Abbas' Minister of Religion Mahmoud Al-Habbash claimed that Jerusalem has been:

"throughout history, the capital of the Palestinian state and the capital of the Palestinian people."
[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 20, 2010]

Neither claim is correct. There has never been a Palestinian state and Jerusalem was never the capital of an Arab or Muslim state. Nonetheless, the minister warned there would be religious war over Jerusalem:

"The term 'war' cannot be erased from the lexicon of this region as long as Jerusalem is occupied."
[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 20, 2010]

The Palestinian Authority Mufti Muhammad Hussein likewise recently denied Jewish history in Jerusalem:

"They [Jews] want to say or suggest that this place (i.e., the Temple Mount) was once, according to their claim, a Temple. However, in truth, there never was a Temple in any period, nor was there, at any time, any place of worship for the Jews or others at the Al-Aqsa Mosque site (i.e., which was built on the Temple Mount, 705 CE)."
[PA TV (Fatah), Jan. 5, 2012]

The following are the recent statements by Mahmoud Abbas and his advisor on Jerusalem, followed by Abbas' earlier comments and the remarks of the Minister of Religion:

"President Mahmoud Abbas held a series of meetings in Tunis... the President met with the Arab ambassadors to Tunisia... He explained to the guests the policies that are being adopted by the occupation authorities (i.e., Israel) - Judaization, destruction of homes, causing the emigration of Palestinian inhabitants, and imposition of high taxes; the continued excavations under the Al-Aqsa Mosque; [and he explained] the need for Arab cohesion in order to protect what remains of the holy city, and the [Israeli] attempts to steal its cultural, human, and Islamic-Christian religious history."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 1, 2012]...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/05/moderate-mahmoud-abbas-israels-judaization-is-stealing-jerusalems-cultural-human-and-islamic-christi.html