Tag Archives: al Aqsa

Palestinian Authority Tries To Fan Flame Of Global Intifada While War Rages In Gaza

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Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official state-run news agency, has once again tried to incite 1.8 billion Muslims to fight Jews and the Jewish State.

On October 25, 2023, as the 2023 Gaza War raged, Wafa wrote “Israeli settlers storm Jerusalem’s Aqsa Mosque,” another lie in its long history of lies to incite a jihad.

The Temple Mount has regular visiting hours and Jews have always used it to visit their holiest site. That angers Jordanian and Palestinian Arabs that Jews claim to have rights to the location which Arabs falsely assert is a purely Islamic holy place.

The Wafa article was horrific from its headline to its last sentence:

“JERUSALEM, Wednesday, October 25, 2023 (WAFA) –  Dozens of Israeli settlers Wednesday morning stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem, under protection from Israeli occupation police, according to local sources.

Witnesses said scores of settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque in separate groups, where they conducted provocative tours through the courtyards of the mosque, received explanations about the alleged “Jewish Temple,” and performed Talmudic rituals near the Dome of the Rock.

This latest incident adds to the ongoing tensions surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third most revered site in Islam. The entry of settlers into the compound, backed by Israeli security forces, is often met with condemnation from Palestinian officials and religious authorities.

The Islamic Waqf, the Jordan-run authority in charge of the holy site, has repeatedly called for international intervention to prevent these incursions, which are seen as a direct challenge to the status quo of the holy site and an affront to the sentiments of Muslims worldwide.

Since 2003, the Israeli occupation authorities have been allowing Israeli Jewish settlers into the compound almost on a daily basis, with the exclusion of Friday, the Muslim day of rest and worship.

Israel captured East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, during the Six-Day War in 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is subjected to almost daily incursions by Israeli settlers, except on Saturday and Sunday, which are done under the heavy guard of the Israeli police in an attempt to divide the mosque spatially and temporally between Muslims and Jews.“

Jews visit their holiest location during regular visiting hours and need protection of police to keep Muslims at the site from attacking them. Jews go because it is the location of two Jewish Temples and the physical center of Judaism. The fact that Muslims get upset does not make it a “provocation” but goes to the antisemitism of those Muslims.

The Palestinian Authority is attempting to get 1.8 billion Muslims riled up against Jews at this most dangerous time. It must be condemned clearly and quickly and forced to stop promoting lies and incitement.

ACTION ITEM

Email White House “Get the Palestinian Authority to stop claiming that Jews are desecrating the Al Aqsa Mosque in an attempt to incite 1.8 billion Muslims around the world to attack Jews.

Related articles:

The Dangerous ‘Settlers Storming Al Aqsa’ Fiction

Visitor Rights on the Temple Mount

On Defenses: Provocative and Legal / Unprovocative and Illegal

Palestinian Authority Continues To Incite Violence Against Jews On Temple Mount

The United States Is “Morally, Historically, and Politically Wrong” About Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount

Time for Jordan To Live Up To Its Peace Treaty With Israel And Support Jewish Prayer On The Temple Mount

The Dangerous ‘Settlers Storming Al Aqsa’ Fiction

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Throughout 2023, Arab media has promoted fake news that Jews are taking over the third holiest site in Islam, the al Aqsa Mosque. They are doing it to incite 1.8 billion Muslims around the world to call for a jihad against the Jews and to destroy Israel.

And it’s a total fiction that is not repudiated by any media and government, even knowing that it is not just false but designed to set the Middle East on fire.

The incitement happens in regular media as well as social media.

Wafa, the official media of the Palestinian Authority wrote on September 10 that “Dozens of settlers break into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.” It claimed that the Jews “conducted provocative tours through the courtyards of the mosque, received explanations about the alleged ‘Jewish Temple,’ and performed Talmudic rituals near the Dome of the Rock.” As seen in pictures, all the Jews did was walk around the site during normal visiting hours.

WAFA article with fake news to deliberately incite the Muslim world against Jews

It is part of a string of highly charged lies repeated around the Arab and Muslim world.

The list goes on, falsely stating that Jews walking around the Temple Mount were in any way entering, let alone harming, the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Social media did much the same over the summer, showing Jews – many of them elderly – walking around the courtyard. However, the text to its readership was “Israeli settlers raided Al-Aqsa” and “Colonial Israeli settlers break into Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa courtyards.”

There are many highly visible examples of Muslim and Arab media and governments deliberately lying to the masses to stoke a religious holy war against the Jews and Jewish State. Yet the United Nations, U.S. government, mainstream and social media companies have never said a word to stop the hateful propaganda which has cost thousands of lives.

ACTION ITEM

Write White House “Demand that Arab and Muslim governments and media stop inciting hatred by falsely claiming that Jews are storming Al Aqsa when they are simply visiting their holiest site.”

Write US Ambassador the United Nations

Write to CNN, The New York Times and other media

Related articles:

The United Nations’ Incitement to Violence

Palestinian Authority Continues To Incite Violence Against Jews On Temple Mount

On Defenses: Provocative and Legal / Unprovocative and Illegal

The Al Aqsa Mosque Is Not So Holy For Muslims

While Over A Million Muslims Visit Al Aqsa Mosque Over Ramadan, Hamas Claims Palestinians Banned And Calls For Global Jihad

Open Letter To Politicians On Al Aqsa Mosque

Judaism’s Particularism Protects Al Aqsa

Uncomfortable vs. Dangerous Free Speech

The United States Is “Morally, Historically, and Politically Wrong” About Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount

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The antisemites of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan continued their evil ways in condemning Jews visiting their holiest location on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, even during the Jewish pilgrimage holiday of Sukkot. The Jordanian foreign minister “denounced the continuous break-ins by Israeli settlers [meaning Jews] at Al Aqsa Mosque” and “that the 144-dunum Al Aqsa Mosque is solely an Islamic holy site” and is completely off-limits to Jews.

This false narrative was inserted by Muslim and Arab nations into the United Nations which has subsequently used it for decades.

United Nations map showing the 1949 Armistice Lines between Israel and Jordan through Jerusalem and highlighting the “principal holy places”

As seen in the United Nations’ map above, the The Temple Mount (in red dotted lines) is not marked correctly as a Jewish holy site. The “Haram esh-Sharif (Mosque of Omar and Mosque of Aksa” is only listed as a Moslem holy place, a deliberate insult to global Jewry.

The United States has sometimes taken offense at the erasure of Jewish heritage in Jerusalem. In response to a United Nations vote on Jerusalem in December 2021, Ambassador Richard Erdman, Area Advisor for Near Eastern Affairs issued a statement: “I want to highlight one specific issue of serious concern, which is the reference to the holy sites in the Jerusalem text. The text only references “Haram al-Sharif,” rather than “Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount,” which is agreed terminology that recognizes the shared and diverse history of the holy site. The omission of this inclusive terminology is of real and sincere concern. It is morally, historically, and politically wrong for the members of this body to support language that denies both the Jewish and Muslim connections to the Temple Mount and Haram al-Sharif.“

Yet despite condemning the lack of LANGUAGE showing Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, the United States supports antisemitic ACTIONS against Jews praying at their holiest site.

On September 28, 2023, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “I also want to reiterate that the United States firmly supports the preservation of the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem [banning Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount]. And we oppose actions that depart from the historic status quo, or otherwise disturb the sanctity of these sites. Such action is unacceptable.”

It is a disgrace that the United States can acknowledge the centrality of the Temple Mount to Jews and Judaism, while simultaneously supporting banning Jews from praying at the site. The United States is aligning with antisemites on the wrong side of history, supporting outright discrimination in a Muslim religious war against Jews.

Why is the Biden Administration so determined to spread anger, division and hate? Why is it supporting policies in which Jews are targeted for attack at their holy site? To gain support against the Iranian nuclear weapons program or lowering the price of gas a few cents?

It is past time for decent governments to support an honest telling of history and abolish the inequity Jews continue to face in Jerusalem.

ACTION ITEM

EMail Senator Gillibrand “It is a disgrace that the US can acknowledge the centrality of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for Jews yet support banning Jewish prayer at their holiest site.”

EMail Senator Schumer

Email White House

It is a disgrace that the US can acknowledge the centrality of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for jews yet support banning Jewish prayer at their holiest site.

Related articles:

The US State Department’s Selective Preference of “Status Quos”

Names and Narrative: CNN’s Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Complex Inversion

Palestinian Authority Continues To Incite Violence Against Jews On Temple Mount

The New York Times Lies About Ben-Gvir And Muslim Arabs Regarding Temple Mount Visit

New York Times Active Reduction of The Jewish Temple Mount

Reuters Anti-Jewish Disinformation Campaign About The Temple Mount

The Inalienable Right of Jews to Pray on The Temple Mount

NY Times Ignores Centrality of the Jewish Temple Mount

The Dark Side of Jerusalem Day: Magnifying the Kotel and Minimizing the Temple Mount

Pope Demanding that Jews Have Rights to Pray on The Temple Mount

Dignity for Israel: Jewish Prayer on the Temple Mount

The World Must Pressure Palestinians On Basic Truths

The UN Talks About Jews Building In Jerusalem On Chanukah

The Al Aqsa Mosque Is Not So Holy For Muslims

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We often hear that the al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is the third holiest site for Muslims, behind Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. What remains unspoken is that the gap between numbers one and two to the distant number three is the size of the Grand Canyon.

Mecca is THE holy city of Muslims. It is there where Muslims perform the hajj, their pilgrimage to the Kaaba stone. During the week of the hajj, over 2 million people come to the city, of which roughly two-thirds are from outside Saudi Arabia.

During the hajj, many Muslims also visit Medina, where Muhammed is buried, about 280 miles away. Visitors come from Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt, among other Muslim-majority countries.

Mecca and Median draw in the Islamic faithful from around the world. The religious sites make the desert country the most popular destination in the Arab world.

The same cannot be said for Muslim visitors to Jerusalem, which only draws local Arabs.

In 2019, before the pandemic dramatically impacted travel, Israel had over 4.5 million tourists visit the country. The two neighboring Arab countries with peace treaties with Israel barely came: Jordan had a mere 19,200 people visit Israel and Egypt had 8,000. Combined, the two countries accounted for 0.6% of tourists to the holy land. Amman, the capital of Jordan is less than a two hour drive from Jerusalem, an easy day trip.

Yet no one comes.

Turkey, which has long had relations with Israel, barely sends any tourists or pilgrims to Israel. The four Muslim majority countries, which recently struck normalization agreements with the Jewish State similarly have almost no visitors.

If al Aqsa is so holy, why don’t any Muslims from around the world come visit?

Some holy sites in the Jerusalem skyline, open to all under Israel

Christians make the pilgrimage to Israel all of the time. Italy alone had nearly 191,000 people come to see the various holy sites. Greece, with a population 1/10th the size of Egypt, had nearly 42,000 visitors to the Jewish State, or more than five times as many as Egypt. While Greece, Turkey and Israel were all once part of the Ottoman Empire, the Muslim interest in Jerusalem is vastly different. While roughly 417 Greeks per 100,000 go to Israel each year, only 37 per 100,000 Turks visit.

Israel allows access for Muslims to ascend the Temple Mount to visit al Aqsa every day, and even bars non-Muslims during Islamic holy days to facilitate Muslim prayers. Over one million Muslims went to Jerusalem during Ramadan in 2023, almost every one a local Arab, many who came repeatedly.

The al Aqsa Mosque is a holy shrine for local religious Muslims, while the entire Temple Mount is the holiest location for world Jewry and central focus of Judaism.

Related articles:

Judaism’s Particularism Protects Al Aqsa

Christians Love the Jewish State

Arabs of Eastern Jerusalem Are Favoring Israel

Tolerance at the Temple Mount

The Arguments over Jerusalem

While Over A Million Muslims Visit Al Aqsa Mosque Over Ramadan, Hamas Claims Palestinians Banned And Calls For Global Jihad

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The crowds coming to Jerusalem were enormous during the holy month of Ramadan. Despite ongoing Palestinian terrorism slaughtering many Israeli civilians, Israel facilitated the large Muslim crowds into the Old City of Jerusalem.

Tens of thousands Muslim worshippers pray near the Dome of the Rock at Al-Aqsa mosque compound / Jewish Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem on April 17, 2023, on the night of 27 Ramadan, celebrated as Laylat al-Qadr, one of the holiest nights during Ramadan. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)

On April 17, some 280,000 people in total entered the Temple Mount compound for prayers during Laylat Al Qadr, also known as the Night of Destiny. Police said that the crowds peaked at 130,000 inside the compound at any one time. Noon prayers the Friday before were estimated to have had 250,000 people.

The Israeli government banned all non-Muslims from visiting the site to make it easier for Muslims to reach the compound. Despite the efforts to accommodate prayer, many leading Palestinians turned what should have been a time of contemplation and appreciation, into caustic calls against the Jewish State.

The former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, said at Friday prayers “There is no room for compromise on Al-Aqsa or space for negotiations around it and we will not give up one iota of its land.”

The political-terrorist group Hamas which rules Gaza and makes up a majority of Palestinian parliament issued a statement calling “on international rights and legal groups to condemn and expose Israeli crimes against occupied Jerusalem and its Palestinian population. The Israeli occupation continues to target Palestinian Jerusalemites, by detaining them, banning them from accessing the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, and imposing hefty fines on them, in a bid to force them from the holy city.” The statement further “called on all Palestinians and the Arab and Muslim world to provide the Palestinian population of occupied Jerusalem with all forms of financial and popular support to confront the Israeli occupation and its policies against them.”

Both Israel and Palestinians prove repeatedly that the Jewish State is the only honest and safe caretaker of the holy sites in the holy land.

Related articles:

Judaism’s Particularism Protects Al Aqsa

Palestinian Authority Continues To Incite Violence Against Jews On Temple Mount

Arabs of Eastern Jerusalem Are Favoring Israel

The U.N. Openly Declares Opposition To Jews in Jerusalem

“Palestinians and Israelis Alike are Experiencing Growing Insecurity, Growing Fear in Their Places of Worship”

Jews In Jerusalem Still Fighting For ‘Social Justice’

Enduring Peace Requires Unity AND Tolerance

Tolerance at the Temple Mount

Visitor Rights on the Temple Mount

Palestinian Authority Continues To Incite Violence Against Jews On Temple Mount

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Nothing so inflames the passions of Muslims around the world as hearing that Jews are threatening the al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.

So the Palestinian Authority yells lies to incite people to jihad against Jews quietly visiting Judaism’s holiest location.

On May 4, 2023, just as it has done many times, Wafa, the official news agency of the PA posted the headline “Israeli settlers break into Jerusalem’s Aqsa mosque.” The inflammatory rhetoric and article had nothing to do with facts. The article said:

“Dozens of fanatic Israeli settlers Thursday morning broke into the compounds of al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy protection from the Israeli police.

“The Waqf said that settlers, divded into groups, raided the holy Islamic Mosque from al-Maghariba gate and took provocative tours in its compounds.

“It added that the extremist settlers performed Talmudic rituals in the eastern part of the Mosque.

This comes at a time as Israeli forces intensify measures against Palestinians coming from Jerusalem to enter the Mosque, inspecting their IDs and briefly detaining them.”

Jews quietly visiting the Temple Mount, which the PA called a “raid” of the al Aqsa Mosque

That the PA would label a few dozen Jews visiting during regular visiting hours – some with their sons for their bar mitzvahs – as an “extremist” and “provocative” “raid” and “break in” of the mosque (which they never entered) demonstrates the importance of having a police escort.

The Palestinian Authority repeatedly shows the world that it can never have control of Jerusalem, as it fosters extremism and violence and rejects peaceful coexistence.

Related articles:

Open Letter To Politicians On Al Aqsa Mosque

Judaism’s Particularism Protects Al Aqsa

“Palestinians and Israelis Alike are Experiencing Growing Insecurity, Growing Fear in Their Places of Worship”

On Defenses: Provocative and Legal / Unprovocative and Illegal

Time for Jordan To Live Up To Its Peace Treaty With Israel And Support Jewish Prayer On The Temple Mount

“Settlers” Now Means Jews Stepping Over The Green Line

Visitor Rights on the Temple Mount

Open Letter To Politicians On Al Aqsa Mosque

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Dear elected official,

I know that you have been following matters in the Middle East and likely have access to materials and insiders that many do not. You may have concluded that while the Arab-Israeli Conflict is complicated, the thorniest issue is Jerusalem, and in that tinderbox the most sensitive is the al Aqsa Mosque / Jewish Temple Mount.

I reach that assessment based on your support of a position that the ban of Jews praying on the holy site should continue, a position known as the “status quo.”

It is likely based on comments from the leader of the Palestinian Authority who said that Israel is “playing with fire” if it allows Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, something he called allowing “settlers to desecrate holy sites.”

The leader of Hamas made similar comments, that there would be a “bloodbath” if Israel makes changes to the rights of Jews. He warned that “the action of the occupation targeting the Islamic and the Christian Holy sites in Jerusalem and Palestine, and specifically the Al Aqsa Mosque, brings about the angry Palestinian reaction.”

To avoid such bloodshed, you possibly decided to overlook the basic human rights of Jews to pray at their holiest site.

You may have convinced yourself that the only Jewish visitors who want to pray at the site are right-wing extremist “illegal settlers”, to further rationalize your position.

So let me ask you, do only Christian fanatics visit and pray at the Vatican?

Do you understand that Judaism is a particular religion, with no desire to convert or dominate anyone? That while Christians and Muslims fought crusades for over one hundred years over the holy land, and expelled the others, and converted their mosques to churches and churches to mosques, Israel did no such thing when it took control of the Temple Mount in 1967? Instead, it handed administrative control of the site to the Jordanian Waqf.

Judaism’s particularism protects al Aqsa.

Jerusalem’s Arabs who have been living under Israeli administration for decades have slowly internalized that Israel has no plans on the al Aqsa Mosque. In a December 2022 poll of Jerusalem’s Arabs, they showed that they have a greater fear of accessing the holy site if eastern Jerusalem was under Palestinian sovereignty (63%) than Israeli (41%).

This year is the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 states “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” Article 2 underscores the point that this relates to religious rights in disputed land: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”

This clearly includes the rights for Jews from around the world to pray at their holiest site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”

So it is with the status quo ban on Jews. It is morally wrong and a disgrace, and the world has blindly let it continue.

I ask that you stop facilitating the trampling of the fundamental human rights of Jews and vote to reverse the anti-Semitic “status quo” edict, and condemn the incendiary remarks and false accusations which block Jews from praying peacefully at their holiest site in their holiest city in the holy land.

Sincerely,

Readers of First One Through

Contact details, click to email:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

Senate Foreign Relations Committee:

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-DE)
Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-CT)
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Sen. Cory A. Booker (D-NJ)
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI)
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)
Sen. James Risch (R-ID)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT)
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE)
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
Sen. Todd Young (R-IN)
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN)
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)

House Foreign Affairs Committee

Related articles:

Pros And Cons Of Muslims Considering Jewish Holy Sites As Sacred Also

Active and Reactive Provocations: Charlie Hebdo and the Temple Mount

The UN’s Disinterest in Jewish Rights at Jewish Holy Places

Apostasy

Tolerance at the Temple Mount

Republican and Democratic Politicians Discuss Israel’s Latest Fight

Arabs of Eastern Jerusalem Are Favoring Israel

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The Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem are in a unique category compared to other Arabs in the region for two principle reasons: from the international perspective, they are not Palestinians, and from the Israeli perspective, they are Israeli. That is not true for any other Arab in the region.

The United Nations in 1947 had sought for all of greater Jerusalem and greater Bethlehem to be an international “holy basin”, but the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli war divided the region into Israeli-controlled and Jordanian-controlled territory. It’s why most countries do not recognize even the western part of Jerusalem as Israeli and move their embassies there, as they want the Holy Basin to be divided through negotiations. The same holds for the eastern part of the city.

From the Israeli perspective, they took the western part of Jerusalem in a defensive war in 1949, and then Bethlehem and eastern Jerusalem in another defensive war in 1967, making the acquisitions completely legal (reacquisitions actually, as all the land was part of the Palestine Mandate). Israel annexed eastern Jerusalem and extended the borders into a new municipality. All Arabs who have not been convicted of terrorism are allowed to apply for Israeli citizenship and thousands have done so.

The trend towards favoring Israel continues to grow.

In December 2022, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) conducted a poll of Arabs from eastern Jerusalem, and compared the results to a poll it conducted in 2010. The trend towards favoring being part of Israel over a potential Palestinian state grew.

There were 22 areas in which the Arabs thought that their daily lives improved, compared to only five in which they deteriorated (and two of them were about taxes). Access to the al Aqsa Mosque (+11%), retirement benefits (+11%), access to travel throughout Israel (+12%), access throughout the West Bank (+21%), overall standard of living (+21%), and obtaining a passport and flying out of Ben Gurion Airport (+22%) are just some examples.

The improvements are directly related to Israel’s governance. When asked to whom they turn when they have an issue, almost no Arab turned towards the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian NGOs or international NGOs which pepper the landscape. Almost everyone turns to either a family member or the Israeli government exclusively.

That is not to say that everything is good and people are satisfied with the Israeli government’s administration. The vast majority of Jerusalem’s Arabs are still angered by the Security Barrier and checkpoints which cause delays (89% and 87%, respectively). The perception of level of crime dropped significantly (from 84% in 2010 to 63% in 2022) as did the perception of corruption of Israeli officials (from 78% to 66%). However the levels of perceived intimidation increased, from border guards (54% to 65%), Jewish civilians (51% to 61%) and Palestinian groups (20% to 29%).

As the Palestinians consider holding presidential elections this year as announced in October 2022 as part of the Algiers Declaration endorsed by the United Nations, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is likely to raise a commotion about having Arabs in Jerusalem participate. According to the PCPSR poll, only 6% of the eastern Jerusalem Arabs said they would vote. Abbas uses Israel’s refusal to allow Jerusalemites to participate in Palestinian elections as an excuse to not hold them, when in truth, he knows that Hamas would trounce him, as shown in numerous PCPSR polls.

Significantly, when asked what they would like to see in a final settlement, the preference among Jerusalem’s Arabs is for being part of Israel TRIPLED, while only one-third would want to see Jerusalem become part of a Palestinian state, down from half.

Not surprisingly, the number of Jerusalem Arabs who would welcome being Israeli citizens over becoming a citizen of Palestine jumped as well.

The immediate reaction to the findings is perhaps surprise, as Jerusalem is considered the thorniest issue to resolve in the conflict. But Jerusalem’s Arabs are finding that becoming Israeli and part of a stable economic powerhouse is preferable to being under corrupt Arab rule.

As it relates to the most difficult of the thorniest issues, the Jewish Temple Mount / al Aqsa Mosque, the polls findings were shocking. Arabs believe that their access to al Aqsa will be BETTER under Israeli sovereignty than Palestinian sovereignty!

Perhaps that is the reason Abbas, Hamas and even the Jordanian king are actively trying to stoke anger about the Old City of Jerusalem and the al Aqsa Mosque: they see that the local Arabs are embracing Israel.

Jerusalem’s Arabs appreciate the benefits of being under Israeli administration and are increasingly showing their preference that all of Jerusalem should be under Israeli sovereignty.

Related articles:

Arabs in Jerusalem

Will the UN Demand a Halt to Arabs Moving to Jerusalem?

Hey Beinart! Arabs In Jerusalem Can Apply For Israeli Citizenship

Jews In Jerusalem Still Fighting For ‘Social Justice’

Jamaal Bowman Disgustingly Compares Israeli Actions in Jerusalem To A ‘Military Coup’, ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ And A “Genocide”

The Scary Growth of Terrorist Propaganda

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In just a single week, two governments took long overdue steps to label all branches of terrorist groups as part of the same poisonous tree. It was not without reason.

On November 19, 2021, the United Kingdom announced that it would add the political wing of Hamas onto the list of terrorist groups, joining the military branch which already had the designation. On November 24th, the government of Australia announced that it was adding all branches of Hezbollah to its terrorist list. They joined many countries in recognizing that the entirety of these organizations mobilized forces of hatred and terror, and facilitated the actual attacks of its military wings.

The propaganda arms of the two groups – al Aqsa and al Manar – are no longer fringe sources of extremism. They have been growing in popularity and are now at parity with more mainstream Muslim Arab media.

Al Manar is the media arm of Hezbollah in Lebanon. It routinely puts out the statements of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah demonizing the United States and Israel. The group defines itself as the official Islamic resistance of Lebanon to combat the atrocities and invasions of western powers.

Al Aqsa is the media arm of Hamas. It also defines itself as the official Islamic resistance of the Palestinian people against western and Jewish forces, advocating violence in its various programming.

Dateal Arabia & Al Jazeeraal Manar & Al Aqsa
Sept 200572.5%4.8%
Sept 201060.7%16.8%
Sept 201536.2%25.4%
Sept 202127.3%25.5%
Media viewership in Gaza over time. Gazans preferences for terrorist sources has grown according to Palestinian polls

As the table above shows, the preference for the programming of mainstream media like al Arabia from Dubai and al Jazeera from Qatar has dropped dramatically, even though those media outlets also demonize the west. The Gazans have become drawn to more radical calls for terrorism.

While the Gazans preference for violence against Israelis surpasses West Bankers, the trend lines for watching terrorist television is much the same in the Palestinian Authority-ruled areas.

Dateal arabia & al jazeeraal manar & al aqsa
Sept 200568.2%8.0%
Sept 201070.5%9.1%
Sept 201528.6%13.0%
Sept 202126.6%23.2%
Media viewership in the West Bank over time. West Bankers preferences for terrorist programming jumped significantly this year according to Palestinian polls

The spike in West Bankers watching Hamas media has a lot to do with Palestinians dislike of PA President Mahmoud Abbas from the rival Fatah party, his cancelling elections earlier this year and Hamas’s missile attacks against Israel in May, a war crime celebrated by West Bankers as a defense for Jerusalem. But the overall trends are much the same as in Gaza: Palestinians are now watching terrorist television at the same rates as mainstream Arabic media.

The United Nations long ago realized that terrorist propaganda fuels violence, but it primarily focused attention on ISIS and al Qaeda and their usage of social media. Hopefully the recent actions of Australia and the UK in labelling the political and media arms of Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations will help reduce the vile calls to violence.

A picture taken on November 12, 2018, shows a ball of fire above the building housing the Hamas-run television station al-Aqsa TV in the Gaza Strip during an Israeli air strike after a barrage of rocket fire from the enclave. Israeli security group Shin Bet accused al Aqsa journalists of using codes and being agents in attacks on Israel (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

Related articles:

Hamas’s Willing Executioners

The West Definitively Concludes Hamas is a Terrorist Group

Excerpt of Hamas Charter to Share with Your Elected Officials

Jerusalem’s Old City Is a Religious War for Muslim Arabs

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The acting-President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas warned the Israelis to not turn their long political fight into a religious war after Palestinian Arabs murdered Jews praying in a Jerusalem synagogue in November 2014. Remarkably sensitive words of consolation (?!) from a head of state.

Just a few months later, Abbas and the Jordanians submitted a 33-page report to UNESCO outlining that the battle for Jerusalem and the Temple Mount was specifically about religion.

The situation is completely farcical from the outset. Jordan, which had attacked the nascent state of Israel in 1948 and illegally seized and annexed the “West Bank” and eastern Jerusalem in a move not recognized by any country in the world, submitted the Old City of Jerusalem to UNESCO in 1981, a year after Israel declared the city its unified capital. How does a country with no standing submit a city in a foreign land for consideration to UNESCO? Who knows?! Perhaps Turkey should submit some sites in northern Cyprus to UNESCO as well. Or better yet, Russia should submit East Berlin, a city divided in war that no longer has a distinct separated entity anymore and is no longer occupied by foreign forces.

To add insult to injury and absurdity, the March 2015 Jordanian/Palestinian document was not a review of the current condition of the Old City of Jerusalem, a matter which might interest UNESCO as part of its officially stated mission. Instead, it was an attack on Jews and the Jewish State, exactly the opposite of what Abbas asked from Israel.

The report mentioned the word Jews and Jewish 44 times (and not favorably). It also introduced a bizarre set of words such as “Judaize” and “Judaization” which it used 22 times. Here’s a meaty example:

“They all reassure their rejection of the attempts to Judaize Al-Aqsa Mosque or any of its components by the Israeli Occupation Authorities, its various organs and the extreme Jewish organizations, which attempt interfering with its administration, preventing and disrupting Muslim worshippers from entering and praying, hampering its maintenance/renovation/repair, and attempts to befog the religious historic Muslim exclusive right and identification by forced use of un-Islamic names such as “The Temple Mount” as part of the Judaization policy enforced by the Israeli Occupation Power of the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

Wow! Now I’m really befogged!

In case you wondered, “Al-Aqsa” is mentioned 109 times compared to only three for the “Temple Mount,” and, as you might have guessed, those three were not positive. In this quote, the Jordanians and Palestinians dismiss the historical existence of the two Jewish Temples:

“… as 2010 approached, the Davidson Center was constructed and the site was turned into an active museum of the so-called “First Temple and Second Temple.“

For the Jordanians and Palestinians, the issue isn’t as much about the sovereignty of the land of eastern Jerusalem as much as it is about enforcing a “Muslim exclusive right” to the Old City and the Temple Mount.


Judaism’s holiest site

When the United Nations adopts Muslim anti-Semitic propaganda and says nothing about stripping Jews of their holiest site, no one should be surprised when religious Christians and Jews and decent people everywhere say enough is enough.

Related First.One.Through articles:

The Palestinian’s Three Denials

Jordan’s Deceit and Hunger for Control of Jerusalem

Would You Rather Have Sovereignty or Control

Dignity for Israel: Jewish Prayer on the Temple Mount

The Waqf and the Temple Mount

Tolerance at the Temple Mount

Abbas’s Harmful East Jerusalem Fantasy

Ending Apartheid in Jerusalem

Time for King Abdullah of Jordan to Denounce the Mourabitoun

It is Time to Insert “Jewish” into the Names of the Holy Sites

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