Meryl has been all over the biased reporting on this story, from several angles. Start here and work backwards.
A continuing theme here this week at InContext will be de-Judaization. Of just about everything. Last week we talked about the de-Judaization of the Holocaust. And we've only just begun to talk about Nadia Abu El-Haj's attempts to de-Judaize the Land of Israel. The furor over the Mugrabi Bridge is all about the de-Judaization of Jerusalem, and specifically the holiest Jewish site in Jerusalem (or anywhere, for that matter) -- Har HaBayit (a/k/a the Temple Mount).
We don't have to look far to find a really good piece that addresses the effort head on. In Ha'aretz, no less. In case you're short on time, I'm going to skip to the end and then cycle back. Keep this in mind as you read the rest of the article -- and all the other articles you'll continue to see in the coming weeks screaming and schreiing over the non-existant danger to the Al-Aqsa mosque.
It is therefore easy to understand why the Muslims are so afraid of archaeological digs, not only on the Temple Mount itself but also around it, although these digs also shed light on Jerusalem's Muslim history. Muslims fear these excavations, not because they physically endanger al-Aqsa's foundations, but because they undermine the tissue of lies proclaiming that the Jews have no valid historical roots in the city and its holy sites.
Now back to the beginning. While Nadav Shragai starts out by suggesting that some missteps were made by the Jerusalem municipality in planning the bridge construction, he quickly gets to this very important point:
Still, one good thing did happen. The Mugrabi bridge plan exposes the great Muslim denial - the denial of the Jewish bond to Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the Temple. Dr. Yitzhak Reiter described the whole story in his study, From Jerusalem to Mecca and Back - a must for anyone wishing to understand the roots of Muslim behavior, even in the Mugrabi bridge affair - but his work remained, regrettably, an academic study, failing to prompt an appropriate public relations campaign on Israel's part. Now the public is receiving another demonstration.
Who among us knows, for example, that the al-Aqsa Mosque, which according to contemporary studies was built some 1,400 years ago, is now claimed to have been built at the time of the world's creation, during the days of Adam or Abraham? And who is aware of the fact that increasing numbers of Muslim academics and religious leaders claim it existed even before Jesus and Moses and that Islam preceded Judaism in Jerusalem?
I'd say there's a good chance that many readers of this blog know that already, but the reminder is useful. What else?
Today, thousands of Islamic rulings, publications and sources deny the Jewish roots in Jerusalem and its holy places. They claim that the Temple didn't even exist in Jerusalem but was located in Nablus or Yemen. An Islamic legal pronouncement (fatwa) on the Jerusalem Waqf (Muslim religious trust) Web site says King Solomon and King Herod did not build the Temple at all, but merely refurbished an existing structure that had been there from the days of Adam. Today, many Muslims call the Temple "the greatest fraud crime in history" and many Muslim adjudicators attach the world "so-called" to the word "temple."
On the southern Islamic movement's Web site, Mohamed Khalaikah cites Israeli archaeologists in support of his theory that there is no trace of the Jews' Temple. He distorts the writings of these archaeologists, whose studies provided findings from Biblical sources corroborating the Temple's existence.
Muslim religious figures attempt to portray the Jewish presence in Jerusalem as having been short-term. The Western Wall is a Muslim site, they argue, and say Jewish affinity for it was invented for political purposes and dates only to the 19th and 20th centuries. Their aim is to disprove the centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism. Above all they stress the "precedence and supremacy of Islam over Judaism, which contaminates the city's Muslim character."
This is why there are some 800 references to Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible and not one, not a single solitary one, in the Koran. Because Jerusalem had no centrality for Judaism until the 19th century but has been revered by Muslims since the beginning of time. O-kay.
Muslim religious leaders, with at least partial academic backing, are today rewriting Jerusalem's history and introducing new terms and content into Muslim and Palestinian discourse. These terms are total nonsense, even according to known Muslim historians like al Makdessi (who lived in the 11th century). In recent years, this new terminology has penetrated the discourse of Palestinian and Muslim politicians as well. Ehud Barak, Shlomo Ben-Ami and the members of the Israeli delegation were horrified to hear it at the Camp David Summit of 2000 from Yasser Arafat and members of his delegation.
So here it is again:
It is therefore easy to understand why the Muslims are so afraid of archaeological digs, not only on the Temple Mount itself but also around it, although these digs also shed light on Jerusalem's Muslim history. Muslims fear these excavations, not because they physically endanger al-Aqsa's foundations, but because they undermine the tissue of lies proclaiming that the Jews have no valid historical roots in the city and its holy sites.
And let's not lose track of one more delicious piece of irony here. While the Wakf is screaming bloody murder about the most careful, delicate, protective preparations being made to assure that the bridge construction will be safe, secure and respectful of any and all structures and artifacts at the site, the Islamic Trust has been carelessly excavating history-filled dirt at Solomon's stables, over 12,000 tons of which, along with countless archeological treasures, has been unceremoniously disposed of in a garbage dump outside the Old City. And this is not to mention the damage to the southern wall of the compound, very close indeed to Al-Aqsa, as well as to the eastern wall, engendered by that same excavation.
To be continued ...
