The Truth
laelahae...@gmail.com
Please Visit:
http://www.beconvinced.com
Blash
> Explore & discover & be convinced that ISLAM is the truth! ...
> Please Visit:
> http://www.beconvinced.com
>
HINT:
When you're peddling something to people that they really don't need or
want, you need a gimmick......
GEICO has a ghecko.......AFLAC has a goose......
You might consider using a camel(if you could stop the sucker from spitting
and farting)......
BTW, I lost 4 friends in the Twin Towers......How does your website
rationalize this???
GoForward
> Explore & discover & be convinced that ISLAM is the truth! ...
> Please Visit:http://www.beconvinced.com
Some more truth:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070810/28847_Egypt_in_Uproar_Over_Christian_Convert_Case.htm
Charlie Perrin
>HINT:
>When you're peddling something to people that they really don't
>need or want, you need a gimmick......
>You might consider using a camel(if you could stop the sucker
>from spitting and farting)......
I think the use of camels in advertising is covered by the cigarette
industry.
bob wald
Don S
what it was.
We should fight all wars with bullets made from the bones of swine.
> Please Visit:
> http://www.beconvinced.com
>
lkgeo1
> Please Visit:http://www.beconvinced.com
"Why is it that on June 4th 1967 I was a Jordanian and overnight I
became a Palestinian?"
"We did not particularly mind Jordanian rule. The teaching of the
destruction of Israel was a definite part of the curriculum, but we
considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem.
Then all of the sudden we were Palestinians - they removed the star
from the Jordanian flag and all at once we had a Palestinian flag".
"When I finally realized the lies and myths I was taught, it is my
duty as a righteous person to speak out". Myths, Hypotheses and
Facts
Concerning the Origin of Peoples
The True Identity of the So-called Palestinians
In this essay I would like to present the true origin and identity of
the Arab people commonly known as "Palestinians", and the widespread
myths surrounding them. This research is intended to be completely
neutral and objective, based on historic and archaeological evidences
as well as other documents, including Arab sources, and quoting
statements by authoritative Islamic personalities.
There are some modern myths -or more exactly, lies- that we can hear
everyday through the mass-media as if they were true, of course,
hiding the actual truth. For example, whenever the Temple Mount or
Jerusalem are mentioned, it is usually remarked that is "the third
holy place for muslims", but why it is never said that is the FIRST
Holy Place for Jews? It sounds like an utterly biased information!
In order to make this essay better comprehensible, it will be
presented in two units:
·1) Myths and facts concerning the origin and identity of the so-
called Palestinians;
·2) Myths and facts regarding Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.
I - Origin and identity of the so-called Palestinians
Palestinians are the newest of all the peoples on the face of the
Earth, and began to exist in a single day by a kind of supernatural
phenomenon that is unique in the whole history of mankind, as it is
witnessed by Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist that acknowledged
the lie he was fighting for and the truth he was fighting against:
"Why is it that on June 4th 1967 I was a Jordanian and overnight I
became a Palestinian?"
"We did not particularly mind Jordanian rule. The teaching of the
destruction of Israel was a definite part of the curriculum, but we
considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem.
Then all of the sudden we were Palestinians - they removed the star
from the Jordanian flag and all at once we had a Palestinian flag".
"When I finally realized the lies and myths I was taught, it is my
duty as a righteous person to speak out".
This declaration by a true "Palestinian" should have some significance
for a sincerely neutral observer. Indeed, there is no such a thing
like a Palestinian people, or a Palestinian culture, or a Palestinian
language, or a Palestinian history. There has never been any
Palestinian state, neither any Palestinian archaeological find nor
coinage. The present-day "Palestinians" are an Arab people, with Arab
culture, Arabic language and Arab history. They have their own Arab
states from where they came into the Land of Israel about one century
ago to contrast the Jewish immigration. That is the historical truth.
They were Jordanians (another recent British invention, as there has
never been any people known as "Jordanians"), and after the Six-Day
War in which Israel utterly defeated the coalition of nine Arab states
and took legitimate possession of Judea and Samaria, the Arab dwellers
in those regions underwent a kind of anthropological miracle and
discovered that they were Palestinians - something they did not know
the day before. Of course, these people having a new identity had to
build themselves a history, namely, had to steal some others' history,
and the only way that the victims of the theft would not complain is
if those victims do no longer exist. Therefore, the Palestinian
leaders claimed two contradictory lineages from ancient peoples that
inhabited in the Land of Israel: the Canaanites and the Philistines.
Let us consider both of them before going on with the Palestinian
issue.
The Canaanites:
The Canaanites are historically acknowledged as the first inhabitants
of the Land of Israel, before the Hebrews settled there. Indeed, the
correct geographic name of the Land of Israel is Canaan, not
"Palestine" (a Roman invention, as we will see later). They were
composed by different tribes, that may be distinguished in two main
groups: the Northern or Coastland Canaanites and the Southern or
Mountain Canaanites.
·The Northern Canaanites settled along the coast of the Mediterranean
Sea from the southeastern side of the Gulf of Iskenderun to the
proximities of the Gulf of Hayfa. Their main cities were Tzur, Tzidon,
Gebal (Byblos), Arvad, Ugarit, and are better known in history by
their Greek name Phoenicians, but they called themselves "Kana'ana" or
"Kinachnu". They did not found any unified kingdom but were organized
in self-ruled cities, and were not a warlike people but rather skilful
traders, seafarers and builders. Their language was adopted from their
Semitic neighbours, the Arameans, and was closely related to Hebrew
(not to Arabic!). Phoenicians and Israelites did not need interpreters
to understand each other. They followed the same destiny of ancient
Israel and fell under Assyrian rule, then Babylonian, Persian,
Macedonian, Seleucian and Roman. Throughout their history the
Phoenicians intermarried with different peoples that dwelled in their
land, mainly Greeks and Armenians. During the Islamic expansion they
were Arabized, yet, never completely assimilated, and their present-
day state is Lebanon, erroneously regarded as an "Arab" country, a
label that the Lebanese people reject. Unlike the Arab states, Lebanon
has a western democratic-style official name, "Lebanese Republic",
without the essential adjective "Arab" that is required in the
denominations of every Arab state. The only mention of the term Arabic
in the Lebanese constitution refers to the official language of the
state, which does not mean that the Lebanese people are Arabs in the
same way as the official language of the United States is English but
this does not qualify the Americans as British.
The so-called Palestinians are not Lebanese (although some of them
came from Syrian-occupied Lebanon), therefore they are not Phoenicians
(Northern Canaanites). Actually, in Lebanon they are "refugees" and
are not identified with the local people.
·The Southern Canaanites dwelled in the mountain region from the Golan
southwards, on both sides of the Yarden and along the Mediterranean
coast from the Gulf of Hayfa to Yafo, that is the Biblical Canaan.
They were composed by various tribes of different stocks: besides the
proper Canaanites (Phoenicians), there were Amorites, Hittites and
Hurrian peoples like the Yevusites, Hivvites and Horites, all of them
assimilated into the Aramean-Canaanite context. They never constituted
an unified, organized state but kept within the tribal alliance
system.
When the first Hebrews arrived in Canaan they shared the land but did
not intermarry, as it was an interdiction for Avraham's family to
marry the Canaanites. Nevertheless, eleven of the twelve sons of Yakov
married Canaanite women (the other son married an Egyptian), and since
then, the Tribes of Israel began to mix with the local inhabitants.
After the Exodus, when the Israelites conquered the Land, there were
some wars between them and the Canaanites throughout the period of the
Sofetim (Judges), and were definitively subdued by King David. By that
time, most Canaanites were married to Israelites, others voluntarily
accepted Torah becoming Israelites, others joined up in the Israelite
or Judahite army. Actually, the Canaanites are seldom mentioned during
the Kings' period, usually in reference to their heathen customs
introduced among the Israelites, but no longer as a distinguishable
people, because they were indeed assimilated into the Israelite
nation. When the Assyrians overran the Kingdom of Israel, they did not
leave any Canaanite aside, as they had all become Israelites by that
time. The same happened when the Babylonians overthrew the Kingdom of
Judah.
Therefore, the only people that can trace back a lineage to the
ancient Canaanites are the Jews, not the Palestinians, as Canaanites
did not exist any longer after the 8th century b.c.e. and they were
not annihilated but assimilated into the Jewish people.
Conclusion: the Palestinians cannot claim any descent from the ancient
Canaanites - if so, why not to pretend also the Syrian "occupied
territories", namely, Lebanon? Why do they not speak the language of
the ancient Canaanites, that was Hebrew? Because they are NOT
Canaanites at all!
The Philistines:
It is from the term "Philistines" that the name "Palestinians" has
been taken. Actually, the ancient Philistines and modern Palestinians
have something in common: both are invaders from other lands! That is
precisely the meaning of their name, that is not an ethnic
denomination but an adjective applied to them: Peleshet, from the verb
"pelesh", "dividers", "penetrators" or "invaders". The Philistines
were a confederation of non-Semitic peoples coming from Crete, the
Aegean Islands and Asia Minor, also known as "Sea Peoples". The main
tribes were Tzekelesh, Shardana, Akhaiusha, Danauna, Tzakara, Masa or
Meshwesh, Lukki, Dardana, Tursha, Keshesh or Karkisha, Labu and Irven.
The original homeland of the group that ruled the Philistine
federation, namely the "Pelesati", was the island of Crete. When the
Minoic civilization collapsed, also the Minoic culture disappeared
from Crete, as invaders from Greece took control of the island. These
ancient Cretans arrived in Southern Canaan and were known as "Pelestim
and Keretim" by Hebrews and Canaanites (that became allied to fight
the invaders). Their first settlement seem to have been Gaza, whose
original name was "Minoah", a clear reference to the fallen Minoic
kingdom. They also invaded Egypt and were defeated by Pharaoh Ramose
III in the 12th century b.c.e. The Philistines were organized in city-
states, being the most important the Pentapolis: Gaza, Ashdod,
Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron, and their territory was close to the
Mediterranean coast, a little longer and broader than the present-day
"Gaza Strip" - not the whole Judah, they never reached Hevron,
Jerusalem or Yericho!
Those Sea Peoples that invaded Egypt were expelled towards other
Mediterranean lands and did not evolve into any Arab people, but
disappeared as distinguishable groups in Roman times. Those dwelling
in Canaan were defeated by King David and reduced to insignificance,
the best warriors among them were chosen as David's bodyguard. The
remaining Philistines still dwelling in Gaza were subdued by Sargon II
of Assyria and after that time, they disappeared definitively from
history. They are no longer mentioned since the return of the Jewish
exiles from Babylon.
Conclusion: there is not one single person in the world who may be
able to prove Philistine lineage, yet, if Palestinians insist, they
have to recognize themselves as invaders in Israel, and then they must
ask Greece to return them back the Isle of Crete! The Philistines are
extinct and claims to alleged links with them are utterly false as
they are historically impossible to establish. In any case, claiming a
Philistine heritage is idle because it cannot legitimate any land in
which they were foreign occupants and not native dwellers. Philistines
were not Arabs, and the only feature in common between both peoples is
that in Israel they should be regarded as invaders, Philistines from
the sea and Arabs from the wilderness. They do not want Jerusalem
because it is their city, which is not and never has been, they simply
want to take her from the Jews, to whom she has belonged for three
thousand years. The Philistines wanted to take from Israelites the
Holy Ark of the Covenant, modern so-called Palestinians want to take
from them the Holy City of the Covenant.
The Palestinians: No, they are not any ancient people, but claim to
be. They were born in a single day, after a war that lasted six days
in 1967 c.e. If they were true Canaanites, they would speak Hebrew and
demand from Syria to give them back their occupied homeland in
Lebanon, but they are not. If they were Philistines, they would claim
back the Isle of Crete from Greece and would recognize that they have
nothing to do with the Land of Israel, and would ask excuses to Israel
for having stolen the Ark of the Covenant.
The land called "Palestine"
In the 2nd century c.e., the last attempt of the Jews to achieve
independence from the Roman Empire ended with the well-known event of
Masada, that is historically documented and universally recognized as
the fact that determined the Jewish Diaspora in a definitive way. The
Land where these things happened was until then the province known as
Judæa , and there is no mention of any place called "Palestine" before
that time. The Roman emperor Hadrian was utterly upset with the Jewish
Nation and wanted to erase the name of Israel and Judah from the face
of the Earth, so that there would be no memory of the country that
belonged to that rebel people. He decided to replace the denomination
of that Roman province and resorted to ancient history in order to
find a name that might appear appropriate, and found that an extinct
people that was unknown in Roman times, called "Philistines", was once
dwelling in that area and were enemies of the Israelites. Therefore,
according to Latin spelling, he invented the new name: "Palæstina", a
name that would be also hateful for the Jews as it reminded them their
old foes. He did so with the explicit purpose of effacing any trace of
Jewish history. Ancient Romans, as well as modern Palestinians, have
fulfilled the Hebrew Scriptures Prophecy that declares: "They lay
crafty plans against Your People... they say: 'come, let us wipe them
out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more'." -
Tehilim 83:3-4 (Psalm 83:3-4). They failed, as Israel is still alive.
Any honest person would recognize that there is no mention of the name
Palestina in history before the Romans renamed the province of Judea,
that such name does not occur in any ancient document, is not written
in the Bible, neither in the Hebrew Scriptures nor in the Christian
Testament, not even in Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, Ptolemaic,
Seleucian or other Greek sources, and that not any "Palestinian"
people has ever been mentioned, not even by the Romans that invented
the term. If "Palestinians" allegedly are the historic inhabitants of
the Holy Land, why did they not fight for independence from Roman
occupation as Jews did? How is it possible that not a single
Palestinian leader heading for a revolt against the Roman invaders is
mentioned in any historic record? Why there is not any Palestinian
rebel group mentioned, as for example the Jewish Zealots? Why every
historic document mentions the Jews as the native inhabitants, and the
Greeks, Romans and others as foreigners dwelling in Judea, but not any
Palestinian people, neither as native nor as foreigner? What is more,
there is no reference to any Palestinian people in the qur'an (koran),
although muslims claim that their prophet was once in Jerusalem (an
event that is not mentioned in the koran either). It appears evident
that he did not meet any Palestinian in his whole life, nor his
successors did either. Caliph Salahuddin al-Ayyub (Saladin), knew the
Jews and kindly invited them to settle in Jerusalem, that he
recognized as their Homeland, but he did not know any Palestinian...
To claim that Palestinians are the original people of Eretz Yisrael is
not only against secular history but also against Islamic history!
The name "Falastin" that Arabs today use for "Palestine" is not an
Arabic name, but adopted and adapted from the Latin Palæstina . How
can an Arab people have a western name instead of one in their own
language? Because the use of the term "Palestinian" for an Arab group
is only a modern political creation without any historic or ethnic
grounds, and did not indicate any people before 1967. An Arab writer
and journalist declared:
"There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by
Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from
Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Iraqis, etc. Keep in
mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands.
Israel represents one-tenth of one percent of the landmass. But that's
too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what
the fighting in Israel is about today... No matter how many land
concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough".
- Joseph Farah, "Myths of the Middle East" -
Let us hear what other Arabs have said:
"There is no such country as Palestine. 'Palestine' is a term the
Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was
for centuries part of Syria. 'Palestine' is alien to us. It is the
Zionists who introduced it".
- Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to British Peel Commission,
1937 -
"There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not".
- Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian, 1946 -
"It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria".
- Representant of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations, 1956 -
Concerning the Holy Land, the chairman of the Syrian Delegation at the
Paris Peace Conference in February 1919 stated:
"The only Arab domination since the Conquest in 635 c.e. hardly
lasted, as such, 22 years".
The preceding declarations by Arab politicians have been done before
1967, as they had not the slightest knowledge of the existence of any
Palestinian people. How and when did they change their mind and
decided that such people existed? When the State of Israel was reborn
in 1948 c.e., the "Palestinians" did not exist yet, the Arabs had
still not discovered that "ancient" people. They were too busy with
the purpose of annihilating the new Sovereign State and did not intend
to create any Palestinian entity, but only to distribute the land
among the already existing Arab states. They were defeated. They
attempted again to destroy Israel in 1967, and were humiliated in only
six days, in which they lost the lands that they had usurped in 1948.
In those 19 years of Arab occupation of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and
the Gaza Strip, neither Jordan nor Egypt suggested to create a
"Palestinian" state, since the still non-existing Palestinians would
have never claimed their alleged right to have their own state...
Paradoxically, during the British Mandate, it was not any Arab group
but the Jews that were known as "Palestinians"!
What other Arabs declared after the Six-Day War:
"There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians
and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political
reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity... yes,
the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical
purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the
continuing battle against Israel".
- Zuhair Muhsin, military commander of the PLO and member of the PLO
Executive Council -
"You do not represent Palestine as much as we do. Never forget this
one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian people, there is no
Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of
the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore
it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of
the Palestinian people".
- Syrian dictator Hafez Assad to the PLO leader Yassir Arafat -
"As I lived in Palestine, everyone I knew could trace their heritage
back to the original country their great grandparents came from.
Everyone knew their origin was not from the Canaanites, but
ironically, this is the kind of stuff our education in the Middle East
included. The fact is that today's Palestinians are immigrants from
the surrounding nations! I grew up well knowing the history and
origins of today's Palestinians as being from Yemen, Saudi Arabia,
Morocco, Christians from Greece, muslim Sherkas from Russia, muslims
from Bosnia, and the Jordanians next door. My grandfather, who was a
dignitary in Bethlehem, almost lost his life by Abdul Qader Al-Husseni
(the leader of the Palestinian revolution) after being accused of
selling land to Jews. He used to tell us that his village Beit Sahur
(The Shepherds Fields) in Bethlehem County was empty before his father
settled in the area with six other families. The town has now grown to
30,000 inhabitants".
- Walid Shoebat, an "ex-Palestinian" Arab -
How long do "Palestinians" live in "Palestine"?
According to the United Nations weird standards, any person that spent
TWO YEARS (!!!) in "Palestine" before 1948, with or without proof, is
a "Palestinian", as well as all the descendants of that person.
Indeed, the PLO leaders eagerly demand the "right" of all Palestinians
to come back to the land that they occupied before June 1967 c.e., but
utterly reject to return back to the land where they lived only 50
years before, namely, in 1917 c.e. Why? Because if they agree to do
so, they have to settle back in Iraq, Syria, Arabia, Libya, Egypt...
and only a handful Arabs would remain in Israel (by Israel is intended
the whole Land between the Yarden River and the Mediterranean Sea,
plus the Golan region). It is thoroughly documented that the first
inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael after some centuries were the Jewish
pioneers, and not the Arabs so-called Palestinians. Some eyewitnesses
have written their memories about the Land before the Jewish
immigration:
"There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent (valley
of Jezreel, Galilea); not for thirty miles in either direction... One
may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings. For the
sort of solitude to make one dreary, come to Galilee... Nazareth is
forlorn... Jericho lies a mouldering ruin... Bethlehem and Bethany, in
their poverty and humiliation... untenanted by any living creature...
A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly
to weeds... a silent, mournful expanse... a desolation... We never saw
a human being on the whole route... Hardly a tree or shrub anywhere.
Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless
soil had almost deserted the country... Palestine sits in sackcloth
and ashes... desolate and unlovely...".
- Mark Twain, "The Innocents Abroad", 1867 -
Where had the Palestinians been hidden that Mark Twain did not see
them? Where was that "ancient" people in the mid XIX century c.e.? Of
course, modern biased Arab politicians try to discredit Mark Twain and
insult and blame him of racism. Yet, it seems that there were other
people that did not achieve in recognizing a single Palestinian in
those times and earlier:
"In 1590 a 'simple English visitor' to Jerusalem wrote: 'Nothing there
is to bescene but a little of the old walls, which is yet remayning
and all the rest is grasse, mosse and weedes much like to a piece of
rank or moist grounde'.".
- Gunner Edward Webbe, Palestine Exploration Fund,
Quarterly Statement, p. 86; de Haas, History, p. 338 -
"The land in Palestine is lacking in people to till its fertile soil".
- British archaeologist Thomas Shaw, mid-1700s -
"Palestine is a ruined and desolate land".
- Count Constantine François Volney, XVIII century French author and
historian -
"The Arabs themselves cannot be considered but temporary residents.
They pitched their tents in its grazing fields or built their places
of refuge in its ruined cities. They created nothing in it. Since they
were strangers to the land, they never became its masters. The desert
wind that brought them hither could one day carry them away without
their leaving behind them any sign of their passage through it".
- Comments by Christians concerning the Arabs in Palestine in the
1800s -
"Then we entered the hill district, and our path lay through the
clattering bed of an ancient stream, whose brawling waters have rolled
away into the past, along with the fierce and turbulent race who once
inhabited these savage hills. There may have been cultivation here two
thousand years ago. The mountains, or huge stony mounds environing
this rough path, have level ridges all the way up to their summits; on
these parallel ledges there is still some verdure and soil: when water
flowed here, and the country was thronged with that extraordinary
population, which, according to the Sacred Histories, was crowded into
the region, these mountain steps may have been gardens and vineyards,
such as we see now thriving along the hills of the Rhine. Now the
district is quite deserted, and you ride among what seem to be so many
petrified waterfalls. We saw no animals moving among the stony brakes;
scarcely even a dozen little birds in the whole course of the ride".
- William Thackeray in "From Jaffa To Jerusalem", 1844 -
"The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and
therefore its greatest need is of a body of population".
- James Finn, British Consul in 1857 -
"There are many proofs, such as ancient ruins, broken aqueducts, and
remains of old roads, which show that it has not always been so
desolate as it seems now. In the portion of the plain between Mount
Carmel and Jaffa one sees but rarely a village or other sights of
human life. There are some rude mills here which are turned by the
stream. A ride of half an hour more brought us to the ruins of the
ancient city of Cæsarea, once a city of two hundred thousand
inhabitants, and the Roman capital of Palestine, but now entirely
deserted. As the sun was setting we gazed upon the desolate harbor,
once filled with ships, and looked over the sea in vain for a single
sail. In this once crowded mart, filled with the din of traffic, there
was the silence of the desert. After our dinner we gathered in our
tent as usual to talk over the incidents of the day, or the history of
the locality. Yet it was sad, as I laid upon my couch at night, to
listen to the moaning of the waves and to think of the desolation
around us".
- B. W. Johnson, in "Young Folks in Bible Lands": Chapter IV, 1892 -
"The area was underpopulated and remained economically stagnant until
the arrival of the first Zionist pioneers in the 1880's, who came to
rebuild the Jewish land. The country had remained "The Holy Land" in
the religious and historic consciousness of mankind, which associated
it with the Bible and the history of the Jewish people. Jewish
development of the country also attracted large numbers of other
immigrants - both Jewish and Arab. The road leading from Gaza to the
north was only a summer track suitable for transport by camels and
carts... Houses were all of mud. No windows were anywhere to be
seen... The plows used were of wood... The yields were very poor...
The sanitary conditions in the village [Yabna] were horrible...
Schools did not exist... The rate of infant mortality was very high...
The western part, toward the sea, was almost a desert... The villages
in this area were few and thinly populated. Many ruins of villages
were scattered over the area, as owing to the prevalence of malaria,
many villages were deserted by their inhabitants".
- The report of the British Royal Commission, 1913 -
The list of travellers and pilgrims throughout the XVI to the XIX
centuries c.e. that give a similar description of the Holy Land is
quite longer, including Alphonse de Lamartine, Sir George Gawler, Sir
George Adam Smith, Siebald Rieter, priest Michael Nuad, Martin
Kabatnik, Arnold Van Harff, Johann Tucker, Felix Fabri, Edward
Robinson and others. All of them found the land almost empty, except
for Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Shechem, Hevron, Haifa, Safed,
Irsuf, Cæsarea, Gaza, Ramleh, Acre, Sidon, Tzur, El Arish, and some
towns in Galilee: Ein Zeitim, Pekiin, Biria, Kfar Alma, Kfar Hanania,
Kfar Kana and Kfar Yassif. Even Napoleon I Bonaparte, having seen the
need that the Holy Land would be populated, had in mind to enable a
mass return of Jews from Europe to settle in the country that he
recognized as theirs' - evidently, he did not see any "Palestinian"
claiming historical rights over the Holy Land, whose few inhabitants
were mainly Jews.
Besides them, many Arab sources confirm the fact that the Holy Land
was still Jewish by population and culture in spite of the Diaspora:
·In 985 c.e. the Arab writer Muqaddasi complained that in Jerusalem
the large majority of the population were Jewish, and said that "the
mosque is empty of worshippers..." .
·Ibn Khaldun, one of the most creditable Arab historians, in 1377 c.e.
wrote:
"Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel extended over 1400 years...
It was the Jews who implanted the culture and customs of the permanent
settlement".
After 300 years of Arab rule in the Holy Land, Ibn Khaldun attested
that Jewish culture and traditions were still dominant. By that time
there was still no evidence of "Palestinian" roots or culture .
·The historian James Parker wrote: "During the first century after the
Arab conquest [670-740 c.e.], the caliph and governors of Syria and
the [Holy] Land ruled entirely over Christian and Jewish subjects.
Apart from the Bedouin in the earliest days, the only Arabs west of
the Jordan were the garrisons".
Even though the Arabs ruled the Land from 640 c.e. to 1099 c.e., they
never became the majority of the population. Most of the inhabitants
were Christians (Assyrian and Armenian) and Jews.
If the historic documents, comments written by eyewitnesses and
declarations by the most authoritative Arab scholars are still not
enough, let us quote the most important source for muslim Arabs:
"And thereafter We [Allah] said to the Children of Israel: 'Dwell
securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to
pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd'.".
- Qur'an 17:104 -
Any sincere muslim must recognize the Land they call "Palestine" as
the Jewish Homeland, according to the book considered by muslims to be
the most sacred word and Allah's ultimate revelation.
Permanent Jewish presence in the Holy Land
Whenever the issue concerning the Jewish population in Israel is
discussed, the idea that Jews are "returning back" to their Homeland
after almost two millennia of exile is taken for granted. It is true
that such is the case for the largest number of Jews, but not for all
of them. It is not correct to say that the whole Jewish nation has
been in exile. The long exile, known as Diaspora, is a documented fact
that proves the legitimacy of the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel,
and was the consequence of the Jewish Wars of independence from the
Roman Empire. If "Palestinians" allegedly are the historic inhabitants
of the Holy Land, why did they not fight for independence from Roman
occupation as Jews did? How is it possible that not a single
Palestinian leader heading for a revolt against the Roman invaders is
mentioned in any historic record? Why there is not any Palestinian
rebel group mentioned, as for example the Jewish Zealots? Why every
historic document mentions the Jews as the native inhabitants, and the
Greeks, Romans and others as foreigners dwelling in Judea, but not any
Palestinian people, neither as native nor as foreigner? After the last
Jewish War in the 2nd century c.e., the Roman emperor Hadrian sacked
Jerusalem in 135 c.e. and changed her name into Ælia Capitolina, and
the name of Judæa into Palæstina, in order to erase the Jewish
identity from the face of the Earth. Most of the Jews were expelled
from their own land by the Romans, a fact that determined the
beginning of the great Diaspora. Nevertheless, small groups of Jews
remained in the province then renamed "Palestine", and their
descendants dwelled in their own country continuously throughout
generations until the Zionist pioneers started on the mass return in
the XIX century. Therefore, the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel is
justified not only by an old Biblical Promise, but also by a permanent
presence of Jews as the only autochthonous ethnic community existing
in the Holy Land. Along the centuries and under different dominations,
the "Palestinian" Jews did never submit to assimilation but conserved
their spiritual and cultural identity, as well as their links with
other Jewish communities in the Middle East. The continuous flow of
Mizrachim (Oriental) and Sephardim (Mediterranean) Jews to the Holy
Land contributed to support the existence of the Jewish population in
the area. This enduring Jewish presence in the so-called Palestine
preceded many centuries the arrival of the first Arab conqueror.
Even though Jerusalem has been off-limits to Jews in different periods
(since Romans banned all Jews to enter the City), many of them settled
in the immediate proximities and in other towns and villages of the
Holy Land. A Jewish community was established at Mount Zion. The Roman
and subsequent Byzantine rule were oppressive; Jews were prevented
from praying at the Kotel, where the Holy Temple once existed. The
Sassanid Persians took control over Jerusalem in 614 c.e. allied with
the local Jews, but five years later the City fell again under
Byzantine control, although it was an ephemeral rule because in 638
c.e. Jerusalem was captured by the caliph Omar. That was the first
time that an Arab leader set foot in the Holy City, inhabited by non-
Arab peoples (Jews, Assyrians, Armenians, Greeks and other Christian
communities). After centuries of Roman-Byzantine oppression, the Jews
welcomed the Arab conquerors with the hope that their conditions would
improve. The Arabs found a strong Jewish identity in Jerusalem and the
surrounding land; Jews were living in every district of the country
and on both sides of the Jordan. Indeed, the "Palestinians" that were
historically dwelling in the Holy Land were no other than the Jews!
Towns like Ramallah, Yericho and Gaza were almost purely Jewish by
that time. The Arabs, not having a name of their own for this region,
adopted the Latin name "Palæstina", that they translated into Arabic
as "Falastin".
The first Arab immigrants that settled in the so-called Palestine -
or, according to the modern UN conception, the first "Palestinian
refugees" - were actually Jewish Arabs, namely Nabateans that adopted
Judaism. Before the rise of Islam, flourishing centres like Khaybar
and Yathrib (renamed Madinah) were mainly Jewish Nabatean cities.
Whenever there was a famine in the land, people would go to Khaybar;
the Jews always had fruit, and their springs yielded a plentiful
supply of water. Once the muslim hordes conquered the Arabian
peninsula, all that richness was ruined; the muslims perpetrated
massacres against the Jews and replaced them with masses of ignorant
fellahin submitted to the new religion. The survivors had to escape
and took refuge in the Holy Land, mainly in Yericho and Dera'a, on
both shores of the Jordan.
The Arab caliphs (Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid) controlled the Holy
Land until 1071 c.e., when Jerusalem was captured by the Seldjuq
Turks, and after that time, it was never again under Arab rule. During
all that period, Arabs hardly established any permanent social
structure of their own, but rather governed over the native non-Arab
Christian and Jewish population. Any honest observer would notice that
the Arabs ruled over the Holy Land three centuries less than they did
over Spain!
In 1099 c.e., the European Crusaders conquered the so-called Palestine
and established a kingdom that was politically independent, but never
developed a national identity; it was just a military outpost of
Christian Europe. The Crusaders were ruthless and tried by all means
to remove any expression of Jewish culture, but all their efforts
ended without success. In 1187 c.e., Jews actively participated with
Salah-ud-Din Al'Ayyub (Saladin) against the Crusaders in the conquest
of Jerusalem. Saladin, who was the greatest muslim conqueror, was not
an Arab but a Kurd. The Crusaders took Jerusalem back from 1229 to
1244 c.e., when the City was captured by the Khwarezmians. A period of
chaos and Mongol invasions followed until 1291c.e., when the Mameluks
completed the conquest of almost the whole Middle East and settled
their capital in Cairo, Egypt. The Mameluks were originally Central
Asian and Caucasian mercenaries employed by the Arab caliphs; a medley
of peoples whose main contingent was composed by Kumans, a Turkic
tribe also known as Kipchak, related to the Seldjuqs, Kimaks and other
groups. They were characterized by their ambiguous behaviour, as Kuman
mercenaries were often contemporarily serving two enemy armies. The
Mameluk soldiers did not miss the right moment to seize power for
themselves, and even after their rule was overthrown, they were still
employed as warriors by the Ottoman sultans and at last by Napoleon
Bonaparte.
In 1517 c.e., Jerusalem and the whole Holy Land were conquered by the
Ottoman Turks and remained under their rule during four centuries,
until 1917 c.e., when the British captured Jerusalem and established
the "Mandate of Palestine". It was the end of the Ottoman Empire, that
owned all the present-day Arab countries until then. Indeed, since the
fall of the Abbasid caliphate in 945 c.e., no Arab political entity
existed in the Middle East for almost a millennium!
By the beginning of the XX century c.e., the population of Judea and
Samaria - the improperly called "West Bank" - was less than 100,000
inhabitants, of which the majority were Jews. Gaza had no more than
80,000 "native" inhabitants in 1951, at the end of Israel's
Independence War against the whole Arab world. Gaza was occupied by
Arabs: How is it possible that in only 50 years it has increased from
80,000 to more than one million people? Are all those Arabs of Gaza so
skilful as to procreate children in a supernatural way? Mass
immigration is the ONLY plausible explanation for such a demographic
increase. The Arab occupation between 1948 and 1967 was an
advantageous opportunity for Arab leaders to promote mass immigration
of so-called "Palestinians" (a mishmash of Arab immigrants) into
Judea, Samaria and Gaza from every Arab country, mainly Egypt, Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. In fact, since 1950 until the Six-Day War,
under Jordanian rule, more than 250 Arab settlements have been founded
in Judea and Samaria. The recent construction of the Arab houses is
quite evident by the materials used for building: concrete and
cinderblock. The Israeli government admits to have allowed over
240,000 workers to enter Judea and Samaria through the border with
Jordan since the Oslo Conference - only to have them stay in those
territories as Arab settlers. The actual numbers are probably higher.
If hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern migrant workers are
flooding into the Judea, Samaria and Gaza, why should Israel be
required to provide them jobs? In fact the reverse, by supporting
their economy while these people refuse to accept Israeli or Jordanian
citizenship, Israel is only attracting more migrant workers. Saudi
Arabia in a single year expelled over 1,000,000 stateless migrant
workers. Lest anyone think that these are all "Palestinians", taking
account of the definition of "Palestinian" according to the United
Nations: all those Arabs that spent TWO YEARS in "Palestine" before
1948, and their descendants - with or without proof or documentation
-. This definition was specifically designed to include immigrant Arab
settlers (not Jewish settlers!).
The British perfidy
The restoration of the desolate and deserted Land began in the latter
half of the XIX century with the arrival of the first Jewish pioneers.
Their labours created newer and better conditions and opportunities,
which in turn attracted migrants from many parts of the Middle East,
mainly Arabs but also Circassians, Kurds and others. The Balfour
Declaration of 1917, confirmed by the League of Nations, committed the
British government (that took control of the Holy Land after having
defeated the Ottoman Turks) to the principle that "His Majesty's
government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish
National Home, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the
achievement of this object". It was specified both that this area be
open to "Jewish settlement" and that the rights of all inhabitants
already in the country be preserved and protected. The "Mandate of
Palestine" -as it was called the British-occupied land- originally
included all of present-day Jordan, as well as the whole of Israel,
and the so-called "territories" between them (?) -actually, the Jordan
river and the Dead Sea are the only "territory" between Israel and the
Hashemite Kingdom-.
However, the political and economic interests of Great Britain in
Arabia turned soon into a blatant anti-Jewish policy. The British rule
progressively limited Jewish immigration. In 1939 the admission of
Jews to enter the Holy Land was put to an end. In the moment in which
Jews from Europe had the greatest need of refuge, the British denied
them to reach the Land that was their only hope of deliverance from
the atrocious Shoah. Yes, the British government is not less guilty
than Nazi Germany for the Shoah! At the same time, the British allowed
and even encouraged massive illegal immigration into the lands west of
the Jordan river from Arab countries. Then, all the lands of the
Mandate of Palestine east of the Jordan river were given to the Arabs
and the puppet-kingdom of "Trans-Jordan" was created, name that was
then changed into "Jordan" after the Arabs occupied the western side
in 1948. There was no traditional or historic Arab name for this land,
so it was called after the river that marked its western border (which
was later included, until June 1967). By this political act, that
violated the conditions of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate,
the British stole more than 75 % out of the Jewish National Home. No
Jew has ever been permitted to reside in the east of the Jordan river.
Less than 25 % then remained of Mandate of Palestine, and even in this
remnant, the British violated the Balfour and Mandate requirements for
a "Jewish National Home" and for "Jewish settlement". They
progressively restricted where Jews could buy land, where they could
live, build, farm or work. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel was
finally able to settle some small part of those lands from which the
Jews had been banned by the British. Successive British governments
regularly condemned Jewish settlement as "illegal". Actually, it was
the British who had acted illegally in banning Jews from these parts
of the Jewish National Home! To conclude in shame, when the it was
held the UN voting to approve the creation of the State of Israel in
November 29, 1947, the United Kingdom ABSTAINED. Israel was recognized
by the USSR, the Communist Countries, the USA and Philippines. When
the British had to leave the Holy Land, they left their weapons in
Arab hands - while Jews were prohibited to have any kind of weapon and
had to keep them in secret in order to defend themselves from the
imminent attack by the Arabs, in which the British would appear as
"disengaged" and free from any responsibility...
"Palestinian «Refugees»"?
Another of the big lies that are being passed off as truth by politics
and mass media is the "Palestinian refugees" issue: the allegedly
"native" population that were "evicted" by the Israelis. Actually, in
1948 the Arab so-called refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by
Arab leaders, who promised to purge the Land of Jews. Almost 70 % of
them left without having ever seen a single Israeli soldier.
On the other side, nothing is said about the Jewish refugees that were
forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and
pogroms. As soon as the State of Israel was founded, hundreds of
thousands of Jews were expelled from every Arab country, mainly Yemen,
Iraq and Egypt. The Mizrachim, also known as Babylonian Jews, were
living in present-day Iraq since the Babylonian exile in the 6th
century b.c.e., the Teymanim or Yemenite Jews were settled in the
Sabean Kingdoms long before Roman times. Arabs have expelled them from
the lands where those Jews were living for many centuries! The number
of Arab so-called refugees that left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be
around 630,000, while the Jewish refugees that were forced out from
Arab lands is estimated to be some more than that... Nevertheless, the
UN has never demanded from Arab states to receive the Jews that were
settled there for many generations and to restore their property and
to provide them employment. Meanwhile, the so-called Palestinian
"refugees" were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab
countries to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory
(Israel's extension is less than 1% of the territory of all Arab
lands). Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, the so-
called Palestinians are the only refugee group in the world that has
never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. On
the contrary, Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel.
The truth is that the Arab League keeps the Palestinian refugees issue
as a political weapon against Israel, with which they continue to fool
the United Nations and propagate their perfidious policy. The proofs
of such intention are given by Arab sources themselves: At a refugee
conference in Homs, Syria, the Arab leaders declared that «any
discussion aimed at a solution of the Palestine problem which will not
based on ensuring the refugees' right to annihilate Israel will be
regarded as desecration of the Arab people and an act of treason». In
1958, former director of UNRWA Ralph Galloway declared angrily while
in Jordan that «the Arab states do not want to solve the refugee
problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront to the
United Nations, and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders do not
give a damn whether Arab refugees live or die». King Hussein, the sole
Arab leader that directed integration of the Arabs, in 1960 stated:
«Since 1948 Arab leaders have approached the Palestine problem in an
irresponsible manner.... They have used the Palestine people for
selfish political purposes. This is ridiculous and, I could say, even
criminal».
Between 1948 and 1967, the Arab flow into the Israeli territories
occupied by them (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) was intensified. The UNRWA
reported in 1951-52 that «200,000 Arab "refugees" were languishing in
Gaza, along with 80,000 original residents who barely made a living
before the refugees arrived», notwithstanding, a project to
accommodate 10,000 families in the Sinai area (then under Egyptian
control) was suspended. How is that the Gaza Strip, having around
80,000 allegedly native residents and twice and half that number of
immigrants is only fifty years later overpopulated, with about one and
half million of "native people dwelling there since ancestral
times"?
The Arab states are acting a downright discrimination policy against
Palestinians, preventing them with all means to achieve any sort of
integration in the Arab countries (the same ones from where the
Palestinians' grandparents emigrated to the Holy Land). Iraq and Syria
were the most appropriate lands for resettlement of the so-called
Palestinian refugees. Between 1948 and 1951, more than 120,000 Jews
left Iraq to settle in Israel, leaving all of their goods and homes
behind them. Most of them were businessmen and artisans, and many were
wealthy. Their departure created a large gap in Iraq's economy; in
some fields, such as transport, banking and wholesale trades, it
reached serious proportions, and there was also a dearth of white
collar workers and professional men. Salah Jabr, former dictator of
Iraq recognized that «the emigration of 120,000 Jews from Iraq to
Israel is beneficial to Iraq and to the Palestinian Arabs because it
makes possible the entry into Iraq of a similar number of Arab
refugees and their occupation of the Jewish houses there».
Nevertheless, Palestinians in Iraq have been "allowed to live in the
country but not to assume Iraqi nationality", despite the fact that
the country needs manpower and "is encouraging Arab nationals to work
and live there by granting them citizenship, with the exception of
Palestinians".
Syria was also almost a desert in the early fifties and a very
suitable land to give home to the "refugees", not only those already
dwelling in Syria but also those in Lebanon and Jordan. In 1949 a
newspaper editorial from Damascus stated that «Syria needs not only
100,000 refugees, but five million to work the lands and make them
fruitful». Indeed, two years later the Syrian government officially
requested that half a million Egyptian agricultural workers be
permitted to emigrate to Syria in order to help develop Syrian land
which would be transferred to them as their property. The responsible
Egyptian authorities have rejected this request on the grounds that
Egyptian agriculture is in need of labour as well. Syria was offering
land rent free to anyone willing to settle there. It even announced a
committee to study would-be settlers' applications. In fact, Syrian
authorities began the experiment by moving 25,000 of the refugees in
Syria into areas of potential development in the northern parts of the
country, but the rigid Arab League position against permanent
resettlement prevailed. Palestinians in Syria are still regarded as
"refugees" and discriminated as such. The situation in all the
remaining Arab states is the same: even though the great majority of
the so-called Palestinian refugees has now left the camps for a better
life as immigrant workers, they are being denied citizenship in the
Arab countries to which they had moved. Regardless of their good
behaviour and the many years they are living there, they are still
discriminated and denied full integration in society. They must be
kept as "refugees" forever, until they may occupy the Land of Israel
once that Jews have been expelled or annihilated, that is the ultimate
aim of the Arab League policy. Of curse, they would never achieve in
doing so, as every time that the Arabs attacked Israel, the Arabs have
undergone a shameful defeat.
The current myth is that these Arabs were long established in
"Palestine", until the Jews came and "displaced" them. The fact is,
that recent Arab immigration into the Land of Israel displaced the
Jews. That the massive increase in Arab population was very recent is
attested by the ruling of the United Nations: That any Arab who had
lived in the Holy Land for two years and then left in 1948 qualifies
as a "Palestinian refugee".
II - Myths and facts about Jerusalem and Temple Mount
(from "Myths of the Middle East")
One of the most popular lies that has become universally accepted as
if it was an indisputable truth is the myth about Jerusalem being the
third sacred place to Islam. It is quite rare to hear the honest
truth, that Jerusalem is the First and Only Holiest place to Judaism!
As a matter of fact, Jerusalem is not mentioned at all in the koran,
and Muhammad has never been there (perhaps he did not even know about
the existence of Jerusalem!). The tale about his dream flight has been
related with Jerusalem in a very recent time for political strategy
purposes.
1) The Islamic claim to the Temple Mount is very recent - Jerusalem's
role as "The Third Holiest Site in Islam" in mainstream Islamic
writings does not precede the 1930s. It was created by the grand mufti
Haj Amin al-Husseini.
Most of the problems surrounding Jerusalem can be traced to two areas
of dispute: the political area that asks Jerusalem to be the capital
of both Israel and the hypothetic Palestine; the other and most
contentious problem is the holiness of Temple Mount to both Judaism
and Islam.
The role Jerusalem has in the Hebrew Holy Scriptures is well known and
not open to debate; however, there are varying opinions on the
holiness of Jerusalem, specifically Temple Mount to Islam.
Many if not most opinions that counter Islam's claim point out the
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the qur'an and did not occupy any
special role in Islam until recent political exigencies transformed
Jerusalem into Islam's "third holy site". This falsehood was created
by the grand mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini. The mufti knew that
nationalist slogans alone would not succeed in uniting the masses
against arriving Jewish refugees; he therefore turned the struggle
into a religious conflict. He addressed the masses clearly, calling
for a holy war. Since the moment when he was appointed to the
position of mufti, Haj Amin worked vigorously to raise Jerusalem's
status as an Islamic holy centre.
2) The Islamic claim to Jerusalem is false - There were no mosques in
Jerusalem in 632 c.e. at the death of Muhammad... Jerusalem was [then]
a Christian-occupied city
-by Dr. Manfred R. Lehmann, writer for the Algemeiner Journal.
Excerpts of the article originally published in the Algemeiner
Journal, August 19, 1994-
The muslim "claim" to Jerusalem is allegedly based on what is written
in the koran, which although does not mention Jerusalem even once,
nevertheless talks of the "furthest mosque" (in Sura 17:1): «Glory be
unto Allah who did take his servant for a journey at night from the
sacred mosque to the furthest mosque». But is there any foundation to
the muslim argument that this "furthest mosque" (al-masujidi al-aqsa)
refers to what is today called the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem? The
answer is, NO!
In the days of Muhammad, who died in 632 of the Common Era, Jerusalem
was a Christian-occupied city within the Byzantine Empire. Jerusalem
was captured by caliph Omar only in 638 c.e., six years after
Muhammad's death. Throughout all this time there were only churches in
Jerusalem, and a church stood on the Temple Mount, called the Church
of Saint Mary of Justinian, built in the Byzantine architectural
style. The Aqsa mosque was built 20 years after the Dome of the Rock,
which was built in 691-692 by caliph Abd el-Malik. The name "Omar
mosque" is therefore false. In or around 711, about 80 years after
Muhammad died, Malik's son, Abd el-Wahd -who ruled in 705-715-
reconstructed the Christian-Byzantine Church of St. Mary and converted
it into a mosque. He left the structure as it was, a typical Byzantine
"basilica" structure with a row of pillars on either side of the
rectangular "ship" in the centre. All he added was an onion-like dome
on top of the building to make it look like a mosque. He then named it
El-Aqsa, so it would sound like the one mentioned in the koran.
Consequently, it is crystal clear that Muhammad could never have had
this mosque in mind when he wrote the koran (if he did so), since it
did not exist for another three generations after his death. Rather,
as many scholars long ago established, it is logical that Muhammad
intended the mosque in Mecca as the "sacred mosque", and the mosque in
Medina as the "furthest mosque". So much for the muslim claim based on
the Aqsa mosque.
With this understood, it is no wonder that Muhammad issued a strict
prohibition against facing Jerusalem in prayer, a practice that had
been tolerated only for some months in order to lure Jews to convert
to Islam. When that effort failed, Muhammad put an abrupt stop to it
on February 624. Jerusalem simply never held any sanctity for the
muslims themselves, but only for the Jews in their domain.
3) The present Arabic name of Jerusalem is "Al-Quds"... but "Al-Quds"
is an abbreviation for "The Jewish Temple"!
-by Rabbi Joseph Katz-
The Arabic name for Jerusalem is "Al-QuDS" (The Holy), which is
abbreviation for another Arabic name used for Jerusalem until the last
century, "Bayt al-MaQDeS" (The Holy House), since the 10th century
c.e. The name "Bayt al-MaQDeS" is a translation of the Hebrew "Beyt ha-
MiKDaSH", which means "House of Holiness", "Temple". But Islam has no
Temple, only the Jews did. Thus the Arabic name for Jerusalem makes no
reference to Muhammad's alleged trip to Heaven, but rather refers to
the Jewish Temple!
In fact, it can be seen that significant Islamic interest in the
Temple Mount does not precede the Six-Day War in 1967.
The greatest lie ever told about Jerusalem
-by Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East analyst & commentator; January
7, 2001-
The 13th century Arab biographer Yakut noted: «Mecca is holy to
muslims; Jerusalem is holy to the Jews».
The terrorist PLO leader Yassir Arafat and the Arabs claimed the Holy
Jewish Temple Mount and Jerusalem based upon one extraordinarily huge
lie told over and over again. Here then is a brief history of the
religious war against the Jewish people, the Jewish State of Israel
and her 3000 year old Eternal Capital, Jerusalem. Would be conquerors
invariably issue false claims to provide justification for their march
to conquest. The more recent call to "Jihad" against the Jews of
Israel was first called in 1947 after the U.N. partition in a
"fatwa" (religious ruling) by the Saudis - supposedly to save the Al-
Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount from the Jews. Thus, Yassir Arafat,
with the full support of the Arab nations, later claimed the Jewish
Temple Mount as the third holiest site for Islam - including all of
Jerusalem. Therefore, as in the past, this claim has its root in a
classic religious war - in addition to other spurious reasons
offered.
This myth of Jerusalem as Islam's third holiest city based upon the
mythical ascension of Muhammad from Al-Aqsa to Heaven has grown
exponentially in the recent telling since 1967. When you tell a Big
Lie and repeat it often, it achieves credibility and legs of its own.
In Islam, telling a lie to infidels for the sake of enlarging your own
believers' faith or defeating the infidel is acceptable, even
desirable.
History and revisionism
These facts of recorded history have been obliterated by the recent
false claims made in the name of radical Islamic fundamentalism
supported by the silence of scholars unwilling to face a "fatwa" of
assassination, the world media, with full access to Biblical scholars
and historical files, have instead accepted the Great Lie. They carry
it forward without question and with a certain perverse enthusiasm,
having refused to use the Bible (Torah) as a resource - the most
accurate historic record of contemporary events of ancient times. They
also have neglected to publicize the historic documents that attest
the Jewish ownership of Jerusalem, including Arab sources.
The history of Jerusalem and the site of the Jewish Holy Temple,
constructed in 956 b.c.e. by King Solomon, son of King David, is fully
described with minute detail in the Torah. The First Temple was later
destroyed by the Babylonian King Nebukhadnetzar in 586 b.c.e.
The Second Temple was rebuilt by order of Koresh (Cyrus), the King of
Persia, who also paid for its reconstruction and ordered the return of
the Jews exiled in Babylon. The Second Temple was completed and
consecrated in 515 b.c.e.
After the Jews revolted against Roman rule, the Romans under Titus
destroyed and burned the Second Temple beginning on the 9th of Av
(Tisha B'Av), 70 c.e. This event is illustrated in the carvings on the
Arch of Titus in Rome, depicting Titus' triumphal march through Rome,
parading the Holy Temple vessels, including the great Menorah. Despite
Arafat's claim that there was no Jewish Temple, the Romans
memorialized their capture of the Jews and their Temple in 70 c.e. by
carving it in stone!
Before the days of Muhammad, "Christian" conquerors had occupied
Jerusalem (within the Byzantine Empire). Bringing one's religion into
battle demonstrated that both their armies and their religion were
superior to those of their victims when they won. So, they usually
built their holy places on top of their victims' holy places, which
they did on the Temple Mount, to absorb the strength of their
conquered adversaries and to convert them to their religion. Even
under the threat of the sword, the Jews refused to convert and allow
their lineage to be absorbed, which would in effect, transfer G§d's
Covenant.
Muhammad died in 632 c.e. Jerusalem was subsequently captured from the
Romans by caliph Omar, six years after Muhammad's death. There was a
struggle over who would assume Muhammad's role as leader of the new
religion of Islam which he had envisioned.
So, another conqueror (the muslims) had superseded the European
invaders and their mosque was proof of their superiority in battle and
religion. But, it was much more. It was also to be a mighty symbol in
the struggle for leadership of the growing movement of Islam. Since
Mecca was already the location of Muhammad's power with its own priest
cult, if a claimant wanted to redirect that power to himself as the
new leader of Islam, he would also need an uncontested and new base of
religious power. He could not make war on Mecca and expect to be
accepted as Muhammad's rightful heir.
Jerusalem, despite Muhammad's rejection, was still looked upon in the
then Arab world as a powerful symbol where the ancient Jews had placed
their faith. The Jews considered Jerusalem the centre of the world and
the earthly dwelling place of HaShem, the One G§d. It was not
surprising that the Arabs and other nations wanted to own and control
this source of power.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Home
Charlie Perrin
>We should fight all wars with bullets made from the bones of swine.
Specifically: square bullets, fired from a Puckle Gun.