Israeli Abuses of Islamic and Christian

Holy Sites in Palestine and Al Quds Al Sharif

By :  Mr. Abdulaziz ‘Izzat Al Khayyat(*)

            Dr. Raouf Abu Jaber(**)

Since they were given permission to return to Al Quds and live there, safe under Muslim tolerance, and after their persecution in Europe and Spain exceeded all bounds, Jews have begun to think of carrying into action their designs to usurp Palestine(1). We will take a look at the most important holy sites that have been subjected to these aggressions, taking into account that the Jews have operated changes in most mosques and Islamic endowment sites. These were more manifest in the towns and villages that the inhabitants were forced to leave, and were occupied by the Jews who evicted Muslims and Christians and converted many of their holy sites into bars, night-clubs and synagogues. This was the fate of, for example, the Okacha Mosque, the Qaimariya Dome, the Sheikh Raslane Mosque, the Safa, Tabariyya, ‘Asqalane, Teerat Bani Saab, Ijzim, Iqrin, Kafr Yaar’am and many other mosques.

The Israelis’ first act of aggression against holy sites was perpetrated against the Buraq Wall and al Buraq Mosque. This wall was named al Buraq because it was there that Angel Gabriel tethered al Buraq, the steed ridden by our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from Makkah Al Mukarramah to Jerusalem. The desecration of this wall occurred towards the end of the fifth century of Hijra, when the Crusaders invaded Jerusalem. Exploiting the helplessness of the Muslims who remained in Jerusalem, the Jews went to the wall and started crying, wailing, banging their heads against it, and writing their names and different prayers on it, thus giving it the name of The Wailing Wall. These practices continued until the rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha when they started to read the alleged David’s Psalms. When Balfour issued his ill-famed declaration and the British occupied Jerusalem, the Jews heightened their onslaught on the wall.

This wall is an Islamic waqf to which King Al Ashraf added, in 589AH/1193AD, the Maghrebi waqf by virtue of a waqf deed duly registered in the legal courts of Jerusalem. Subsequently, additional waqfs consisting of two zawiyas (sanctuaries) were added by Abu Madyan. Muslims built a mosque and many other waqf properties in the areas surrounding al Buraq Wall. The British encouraged the Jews in their aggressions against this wall, ultimately leading to al Buraq Revolution. In the aftermath of this uprising, an investigation commission was set up and concluded that the wall was a Muslim waqf property. But the findings of this commission went unheeded, and when the Jews occupied Jerusalem in 1967, they removed the entire Maghrebi quarter, with its buildings, mosques and sanctuaries, and transformed it into a Jewish public place.

They also carried out their despicable deeds against the famous Al Jazzar Mosque in 'Akka, the other waqf property attached to it and its Quranic School. They brought to a total halt teaching activities there, turning the mosque into a tourist attraction where no act of worship could be performed.

Similarly, they attacked Yafa mosque with the purpose of converting it into a night-club and tourist attraction. But the Muslims who remained in Yafa since 1948, the date on which the United Nations issued its unfair resolution to partition Palestine and establish the state of Israel, rose up and created the Waqf Administration to confront the government of Israel. They took all legal measures and managed to end aggression against Yafa mosque which remained standing as a holy place of worship. Had it not been for the steadfastness of the Muslims in Yafa and of other Arabs, the mosque would have been judaised.

Another prominent holy site ignominiously targeted by the Jews was the Ibrahimi Mosque which houses the tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as those of their wives. In their endeavour to preserve these symbols(2), Muslims enlarged the structure built by Herod and turned it into a mosque where the Almighty is worshipped and prayers are conducted. The Umayyads built minarets, and erected domes over the tombs, and built the open courtyard of the mosque. Subsequently, the Abbassids enlarged it further and built mausoleums and sanctuaries. At the time of Salah Eddine El Ayyoubi, it was renovated and fitted with a minbar fashioned under the Fatimid sultan Al Mustanssir Billah in 484AH, but could not be placed at the mosque since the latter was then under Crusade occupation.

When the Jews occupied Hebron in 1967, they took over the mosque and converted it into a synagogue, preventing Muslims from praying there and restricting them to a small portion of the mosque. They begun to hold their singing, dancing and circumcision rites there, drinking alcohol, eating, and discarding leftovers in the area reserved for Muslim prayers. They stole works of arts, desecrated the Makfia cave, blew up the staircase leading to Nacer Qalawoon gate of the mosque, and demolished the well Muslims used for their ablutions. They allowed dogs inside the mosque and continuously harassed Muslims in their prayers and tried to prevent them from praying there. Then they started using the whole mosque, affixing chairs, other furniture and chandeliers. They tore up copies of the Quran, trampled the carpets with their dirty feet and perpetrated every indecency within the mosque, in addition to their physical harassment of the worshippers praying in the Ibrahimi precincts, killing and injuring hundreds of them.

Al Aqsa and Other Jerusalem Mosques :

In the section of Jerusalem known as the new or the Western one, none of the holy sites has been spared desecration since 1948, particularly the cemetery known as the Mamin Allah cemetery (Mamela) and its mussalah. One part of this cemetery, along with the Baqaa mosque and all the holy sites located outside the old walls were spared. The sites located within the old city of Jerusalem, mosques, mussalahs, sanctuaries, mausoleums and lands whose area is estimated at 170 dunams and which encompasses the districts of Sharf, Maghrebi, Selsela, the square, and the Saadia with its two mosques, have all been obliterated, but for the mosque of Umar located in the vicinity of the Church of Resurrection, the abandoned Sheikh Jerrah mosque and Al Aqsa mosque.

The recurring acts of aggression against Al Aqsa Mosque are well documented since the Jews occupied the old part of the city. The most famous of these aggressions were :

1- The Jewish usurpation of the Maghrebi gate, one of the gates of Al Haram Al Sharif, the building of barracks there, and the use of this gate to infiltrate the holy precincts and conduct demonstrations and prayers on its esplanades. The Jewish authorities keep under close control the outside gates of Al Haram.

2- Israeli excavations around Al Haram from the southern and western sides, the entrance to the foundations of the Dome of the Rock, the opening of tunnels under the waqf structures, mausoleums and esplanades, resulting in the corruption of the foundations of dozens of buildings, such as the Ottoman mosque, the Kurdish hospice, the Manjakiyya and Jawhariyya schools and the Wafaii mausoleum.

3- Emptying the tunnels, water canals and wells under Al Haram Al Sharif with the aim of weakening the foundations of the two mosques from the southern side in such a way as to facilitate their destruction as a result of the sound of military aeroplanes that fly over them, or of an earthquake.

4- The burning by the Australian Zionist Dennis Rohan of one third of the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque on 21/8/1969, and the burning of the famous minbar known as the minbar of Salah Eddine Al Ayyoubi.

5- The creation of secret passageways in order to infiltrate and overtake the mosque.

6- The attempt to take control of the Stables of Solomon Ibn Abdulmalik.

7- The break-in by the Custodians of Temple Mount and the Kakh group on 14/8/1979, and the raid by the soldier Harry Goldman and his killing of two Palestinians and wounding sixty.

8- The attempt to break into the Marwani mussalah on 10/3/1983, the attempts to squat Al Aqsa Mosque by operating openings on the southern side on 12/3/1983, and the storming of Al Haram on 20/7/1996 by a group of Zionists.

9- The elaboration by the Israeli government of many plots to take over Al Aqsa and to pave the way for this by replacing, on 13/9/1999, police patrols by an electric fence, electronic gates and surveillance cameras that monitor all the roads leading to Al Haram.

10- The walkabout of murderer Ariel Sharon in Al Aqsa Mosque, along with one thousand soldiers and policemen, the assassination of five Muslims and wounding of dozens, the breaking into Al Haram Al Sharif and the killing of 22 Palestinians and wounding two hundred others on 8/8/1990; again the breaking into al Haram Al Sharif and the killing of 62 Palestinians while hundreds were injured on 24/09/1996. Then the wounding of more than twenty Muslims when they confronted the Custodians of the Temple Mount as they attempted to lay the foundation for the alleged temple on 19/7/2001.

These are but a few of the so many aggressions. But what constitutes a real danger is the continuity of the onslaught against the third holiest place, the first Qiblah of Muslims and the most cherished of all places. We need to appreciate the magnitude of the tragedy that lies in remaining oblivious of the Jews’ plots and their readiness to demolish Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock and to erase all the traces of Islam in the noble sanctuary known in Islamic texts as “Al Aqsa Mosque” as in Surat al Israa : “Glory to Allah who did take His servant for a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose precincts we did bless in order that We might show him some of Our Signs, for He is the one who hearth and seethe (all things)”. In April 2001, plans were drawn up to build a synagogue on the esplanade of Al Aqsa Mosque, and these plans were approved by Sharon and his cabinet. We must strive to pre-empt the calamity that will befall Al Aqsa Mosque, and fend off the onslaught on Al Haram Al Sharif. Christian Arabs need to understand that the threat to Al Aqsa Mosque is but a prelude to the desecration of Christian holy sites, and most of all the Church of Resurrection in Jerusalem. All of us must understand that the Jewish groupings that I will mention are cooking up many a plot to destroy hundreds of Christian sanctities just as they have concocted plans to destroy Muslim sanctities in Palestine and Al Quds. Proof of this lies in these precursors :

First : The reduction of the Christian presence in Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem, through the incessant aggressions on churches, cloisters and clergymen, and encouraging the immigration of Christian Palestinians.

Second : Aggressions against the Church of Resurrection, either by breaking lanterns on the tomb of the Christ, stealing from the church or attacking the guardian monks. The Israeli government has remained impassive vis-à-vis these acts of vandalism and aggression.

Third : The raid on the Copt monastery attached to the Church of Resurrection, the beating up of its monks by Israeli police, the burning of five religious centres and a press house belonging to Christian churches.

Fourth : pressuring all Christian Arabs, using all means and methods, into forcing them to emigrate, particularly from Jerusalem. If we draw a simple comparison between the number of Christian inhabitants in Jerusalem in 1967 and today, we will find out that the number has dropped by there is a 70%(3).

Fifth : Breaking the gates and windows of the Baptist Church of Saint John and stealing its contents in Karem in 1967. The Israelis substituted the icon of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus with an obscene and abject depiction that was exhibited in the Tel Aviv gallery under the heading ‘Peace on the Mother of Christ’. Jews stole the crown of the Virgin Mary, removed the precious stones and returned it to its place. They hit the property of the Church of Saint George with cannon balls. The Latin Patriarchate was forced to close down three churches after they were vandalised and their contents stolen. The Armenian church of the Salvation was converted into barracks for the Israeli Army in 1967.

Sixth : Jewish policemen drank whisky in the sacred cave of the Church of Nativity during Christmas mass in 1967, as reported by the Latin bishop Ni’ma Assamaane.

Seventh : The Copt monastery and monks were attacked in 1970. The Jews also burnt the International Centre for the Holy Book on Mount Olive in 1973, and the Saint Georgios Centre on Jerusalem Lake was desecrated and converted into a night club in 1973.

Eighth : Acts of violence against churches and monasteries continued in 1976, 1979, 1980 and 2002 ; they involved acts of desecration, demolition, theft and assaults on monks and priests(4).

In the following section, we shall list the names of some of these terrorist Jewish organisations and groups involved in the planning and implementation of a series of crimes, violations and attempted demolitions of Islamic holy sites and of Al Aqsa Mosque, and then of Christian sanctities as listed in the report of the Palestinian Ministry of Information quoting the Jordanian “Array” newspaper :

1- Ateret Cohanim (Rabbinical Crown) : This association was created in 1987 following a division within the Aterat Cohanim Movement. It is headed by Mordecai Cohen who settled in the old city of Jerusalem in the Wad quarter where the permanent headquarters of the organisation are also located. The organisation operates under a facade of Talmud school, but its operations encompass Uqbat Al Khalidia, the Saraya district, Saadia and the Selsela Gate. Its leaders surround themselves with absolute secrecy. The organisation has a permanent branch in the United States of America, based in New York, which constantly organises fund raising events. Other persons working in the association include : Mather Davidson, Yossi Baho, Rabbi Schlomo Aviner, author of “Let us restore the Kingdom”. The members of this association refuse to pray at Al Buraq Wall until a religious ruling is issued authorising them to pray close to the alleged Temple, and they entertain plans of building the third Temple.

2- The Temple Research Centre : This centre is an important institution and is located in the Sharf quarter which was converted into a Jewish quarter facing Al Buraq Wall in the old city. In this centre can be found, on permanent display, a model of the Temple, complete with the robes of the rabbis, the Temple, the trumpets, images of sacrificial slaughters and a pictogram of the Temple. The Centre is headed by Yisrael Ariel, a member of the banned ‘Kakh’ movement.

3- Bayt Al Maqdis Institute : It is a radical Jewish institute that seeks to rebuild the alleged temple.

4- Kulal Ghulista : It is a Jewish kibbutz located in the Muslim quarter of Al Quds. The school demands the rebuilding of the temple on the esplanade of Al Aqsa Mosque.

5- The School of Judaic Thought : It is a radical movement headed by rabbi Yehuda Cruiser who specialises in writing about the Temple. The school’s theories are inspired from those of the fanatic “Kakh” movement.

6- The Temple Preparatory Movement Association : This association was created by David Joseph Lenum in Al Quds. The founder of this movement delivers lectures to those who visit the alleged Temple Mount, particularly on Tuesdays and Fridays. Lenum owns the monthly magazine “We shall build the Temple” on the cover of which appears a computer generated picture with a temple with no mosques. The followers of the movement are estimated at four hundred, but the magazine is regularly distributed to three thousand subscribers. In 1997, the founder of the movement organised an exhibition dedicated to the Temple.

7- The “Hay Vicam” movement : This movement was founded by Yehuda Etzion, a former member of the Jewish secret formation that drew up a plan to blow up the Al Aqsa Mosque early in the eighties. The record of this movement is rife with aggressions against Palestinian citizens, such as assassination attempts against municipality presidents on the West Bank, and plans to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque. He was arrested several times and released. The movement calls for building the third temple where Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock stand today.

8- Custodians of Temple Mount : This is a radical religious group that was founded in the eighties under the name “Home Mount Association”. It seeks to judaise Al Haram Sharif compound. Its main office is located in occupied Jerusalem and it is headed by Gershon Solomon. It is funded by Christian extremists in California and pursues the sole goal of building the third temple.

9- The Ashmu Naim movement : It is a racist terrorist organisation recently created by Yoel Lerner who was inspired by the Kakh Movement. Its activities are of a violent nature encouraged by the high military expertise of its members. One of its objectives is to control Bayt Al Maqdis and expel Arab inhabitants from all of Al Quds.

10- Siouri Zion Movement : This is a voluntary league that operates under the supervision of the Tellissia Kibbutz. Its main thrust is to raise awareness about the importance of Jerusalem among the Jewish masses, and particularly among Israeli soldiers. It is busy training volunteers for the rebuilding of the alleged temple on the ruins of Al Aqsa Mosque.

11- Mount Temple Recovery Movement : This movement emerged in 1968 and demands the immediate demolition of Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Some of the chief rabbis involved in this movement include Duchy Levenger and Yisrael Ariel.

12- There are 21 Temple fund associations that collect contributions from wealthy Jews and Anglican Christians in America. A fund to this effect was set up in the United States in 1982 where these associations entertain close relations with the political elite.

13- There are 31 pro-temple movements whose main objective is to take control of Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. They are strongly active within religious institutes.

14- Furthermore, there are about 125 other Jewish radical groupings and Christian fanatic formations that came to Palestine from Italy, Europe and America to demolish Al Aqsa before the third millennium (as reported by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot in its edition of 3/9/1998).

The study of Mr Nawaf Azzeru, published by the “Doustour” newspaper on 8/8/2004, maintains that there are four theories for building the Temple where Al Aqsa Mosque stands now :

1- Erection of ten pillars (representing the Ten Commandments) near the western wall of Al Aqsa mosque and at the same height as the current esplanade of the mosque. The temple would then be built above these pillars. This structure would be connected by a holy beam that the Jews imagine to exist in the courtyard of the Dome of the Rock.

2- Building the third temple close to the western wall of Al Aqsa Mosque in a vertical pre-layout so that the Temple can rise higher than the mosque and automatically become connected from the inside with the mosque’s esplanade.

3- The idea of an architectural transfer consisting in digging a tremendously deep trench around the mosque of the Rock and transferring this mosque as it is outside Jerusalem, then build the temple in its place.

4- Building the temple on the ruins of the whole of Al Aqsa Mosque.

The Jews had been dallying with this idea long before the emergence of Zionism, in fact since the initial Freemasonic concept and the first rabbi. As early as the fifth century Hejira, the Jewish Andalusian philosopher, Moussa Ibn Maimoun, promoted this idea. Since the Jews were allowed to visit Al Buraq Wall east of Al Aqsa Mosque, they have been writing on its walls prayers for the destruction of Al Aqsa and the building of the alleged temple. Their endeavours go back to the early days of the British mandate. Sir Leslie Bowles, High Commissioner of  Palestine, then serving as Britain’s high commissioner there, sent a letter on 7 June 1920 to the general headquarters of the occupied territories administration which read : “The Jews have requested that the government hand over to them Al Haram Al Sharif on the grounds that it belongs to them”. The Jews based their request on the decision of the Jewish San Remo Conference, and took advantage of the nomination of the Jewish Samuel Herbert as high commissioner to Palestine. Auskochen, then vice-president of the Zionist Committee, submitted a request for the handing over of Al Haram Al Sharif so that Solomon’s Temple could be rebuilt. He was supported in this claim by Chief Rabbi Abraham-Isaac Kook and the Rabbinical Council of the Holy Lands. The chief rabbi of Rome, Abraham Rosenbach, residing in Cernoti at 20, Tremi Street -Bokhina, Rumania, sent a letter to the Mufti of Palestine, the late Haj Amin Al Husseini, in which he claimed that King David had bought Mount Moriah in Jerusalem through a contract signed with Arnon the Jebusite, and declared it a waqf for Jehovah, the eternal (a historical groundless lie purported based on no evidence other that the fallacies spewed by Jews when they were in Diaspora and imprisoned). He added that supporting evidence and proofs (presumably of the lies fabricated by their rabbis) were provided to the secretary of the Palestinian government in Al Quds under reference number 26/487. He then proceeded to request that the Arabs forsake this site to the rabbis, children of Aaron, to perform their religious rites. He went on quoting invented Torah passages from the 24th Psalm about the alleged rights of ownership of Mount Moriah on which Al Aqsa mosque is built. Prior to this letter, dated 20 November 1930, other requests had been made by Jewish leaders to the British Mandate Palestinian government, such as Norman Bentwich who was appointed by the English as general delegate in Al Quds for more than ten years as of 1919, Zinkwell and Lord Melchet (formerly known as Lord Alfred) in 1922.  There was also a memorandum submitted by the Jewish Religious Council to the League of Nations in 1928, the text published by Professor Kloones from the Hebrew University on 9 August 1929 in the Palestine Weekly, the texts published by the Yedo Arepa Yum quoting Jerusalem’s Chief Rabbi Cook, who corroborated the myth cultivated in the minds of the west and America by saying : “the Land of Israel is ours. It is ours though the Jews are a minority. We shall take it from the Arabs and we shall tirelessly work towards recovering it and freeing it from their hands”. Sharon, resorting to tyranny, terrorism and destruction, and with the help of America, Great Britain and other western countries, is executing the plan that today’s Arabs and Muslims have ignored : “All that the Arabs have to do is pack up their tents and go back to the desert where they came from”. The Encyclopaedia Britannica quotes the Encyclopaedia of Israel in saying that the Jews aspire to rebuild the Temple and restore the Davidian throne in Jerusalem(5).

Christian-Muslim Solidarity against the Onslaught on Holy Sites :

The survival and future of the Palestinian people is under threat, so let us not desert this people in its times of need. Al Quds is the converging point of all the children of Palestine, so let it not become a mere register of memories or a museum of vestiges with no soul and no people, in the event where a community of the Arab and Muslim Ummah, called the Palestinian people, is exterminated and their Islamic and Christian sanctities erased.

Muslim and Christian solidarity is a must for the sake of Palestine. This solidarity can be achieved through the following :

1- Arab and Islamic states must strongly oppose Israeli aggressions perpetrated against the Palestinian people and the Islamic and Christian holy sites.

2- Muslims and Christians and Muslim institutions and Christian churches and monasteries all around the world must serve as a guardian of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Palestine, and in Al Quds in particular, and spare no effort in rescuing them from desecration, demolition and modification.

3- The whole world, the United Nations and international non-governmental organisations, must fully understand the tragic conditions of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

4- The United States of America, the main ally of Israel, must fully understand the Israeli governmental and public stance vis-à-vis Islamic and Christian sanctities, and firmly intervene to prevent Israel and its organisations from carrying into action their plots to desecrate holy sites and demolish Al Aqsa Mosque.

5- A joint media campaign must be organised by Muslims and Christians and media channels must all be used to expose the lies circulated by the Israeli media about holy sites.

6- Researchers and scholars must write about Al Quds and its sanctity and publish their studies in newspapers, magazines and the audio and visual media.

7- All Islamic, Arab and international television stations must take as much interest in holy sites as they take in entertainment programmes, music and festivals.

8- Support must be extended to the different exhibitions that shed light on the importance of holy sites for the believers, so that these exhibitions can roam the world and sensitise the world about the tragic conditions of these sites and the plots being woven to desecrate, destroy and demolish them.

9- The creation of specialised commissions made up of Muslims and Christians to work with all possible tools towards the protection of these holy sites.

10- The setting up of a fund backed by governments and wealthy personalities to ensure, through financing, the translation of this solidarity into concrete action.

We dread that the cries of Muslims and Christian will fade away and never reach the ears of governments and peoples, drowned by the drone of planes, the cacophony of the misleading Israeli publicity, and other people’s oblivion to these cries.

These are the houses of Allah ; they have a God to protect them, “and the tyrants shall know what their fate will be”.

(*) Representative of the Islamic International Council for Dawah and Relief.

(**) University Professor in the Jordanian University, Amman.

(1) We will not address the unsuccessful measures taken towards controlling Palestine during the rule of Muslim Ottomans, nor the Jewish success after the Balfour Promise and the dark era of the British Mandate which facilitated the take-over. This take-over resulted in the establishment and continuity of the Israeli state in its hegemony and tyranny against the people of Palestine thanks to the help they received from Britain and the United States.

(2) It is said but cannot be confirmed that Abraham and Isaac are buried at a depth of seventy meters below the structure of the mosque. The only location of a prophet’s grave known with certainty is that of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in Madinah. As for Jacob, his son Joseph had him brought to Egypt where he died later.

(3) The Lebanese magazine “Al Quds”. November, 1979

(4) Cf. Documentary report on the most notorious Israeli crimes, aggressions and violations against Al Quds and the Al Aqsa Mosque by Mahmoud Awwad, as well as “Israeli Aggressions against Christian Sanctities and Clerics” by Mahmoud Awwad.

(5) From the book “Hadha Balaghun Linnassi wal Undhiru Bih” (Such is the notice to people and let them take heed of it). Third edition, 1357 AH.