The infamous Beeb surprised me today with a surprising balanced article on the Muslim craziness over the Israeli excavation and repair in Jerusalem.
The article recognizes that in Jerusalem archeology is politics and that the Muslim unrest has nothing whatsoever to do with religion and everything to do with trying to stake a claim on something that isn't theirs.
Most illuminating were quotes from an independent observer, Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, from the French institute the Ecole Biblique in East Jerusalem who said that the work was "completely routine".
"This work is not inside the Haram. It is outside, leading to the Moors' Gate. The earth ramp fell down and has to be replaced," Father Murphy-O'Connor, author of an Oxford University guide "The Holy Land", told me.
"I do not know why the Palestinians have chosen to make an issue out of this. It is a recognised Jewish area under the arrangements that prevail in the Old City.
"One can contrast this to the extensive excavations just round the corner in a Muslim area where huge pilgrim hostels from the 8th Century were revealed, with no protest. There has also been no protest over digs at the City of David nearby.
"There is absolutely no danger to the foundations of the al-Aqsa mosque since that is built on the huge Herodian blocks that are still there."
The only thing that the article could also have mentioned was that under Ottoman Turkish rule and until the 1920's, the supposedly `holy Muslim site' was an abandoned derelict building that was only renovated under the infamous grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Feisal al-Husseini as a political move to obstruct the British from carrying out their legal commitment to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine and to attempt to draw more Muslims to Jerusalem. All of Jerusalem then was , as now, a majority Jewish city and the dino media's favorite pet phrase `traditionally Arab East Jerusalem' only became a reality after 1948 when the Jordanian Army with its British officers and equipment was able to hang on to East Jerusalem and ethnically cleanse every Jew from that part of the city.
I know, I know...ancient history and nobody realizes it has anything to do with them ...
4 comments:
The British had no legal commitment to create a homeland for an undesired European minority in the Middle East.
The British who colonized the area by the use of force had no right, legal or otherwise, to hand a part of that land to a bunch of fundamentalists who believe God promised it to them exclusively 4000 years ago.
Israel, that ceased to exist for a continous 2000 years (except in the minds of fundamentalists), is a historical anomoly that was imposed by force, injustice and a system of apartheid.
Jerusalem will be taken back by people who relatively recognize the faith of others as valid. Sharing Jerusalem among the 3 faiths is an Islamic idea not a Jewish/Christian one.
As to cleansing Eastern Jerusalem from Jews/Zionists, I believe it was an unfortunate situation that was done for security reasons. The Zionists were plotting to take over all of the city (which they finally did in 1967) to fullfil their messianic beliefs (so some messiah show up from some imaginary gate...it has been 5000 years and still waiting). For the record, that the US government rounded up all Japanese-Americans in camps with the approval of the supreme court when no Japanese-American was threatning to take over America.
Hi Zionistnot;
Please see my response to you here:
Thanks for your response. I guess we're going to have the readers decide for themselves. They now have both sides of the story to think about.
You're welcome..although, to be frank, I don't think you presented much in the way of objective fact. I hope you don't mind me saying so.
I don't run this site as an echo chamber and always welcome different perspectives.
If you have the courage to challenge your beliefs and experience a different perspective, I recommend regular visits to this site ( please do a search with `Palestinians') and the following:
`From Time Immemorial' by Joan Peters
`Empires in the Sand' by Ephriam Karsh.
`A history of the Ottoman Empire' Lord Lovett
Thanks for dropping by.
ff
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