The Western Wall belongs to Muslims and is an integral part of Al-Aksa Mosque
and Haram al-Sharif (the Islamic term for the Temple Mount complex, meaning the
Noble Sanctuary), according to an official paper published on Monday by the
Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information in Ramallah.
The paper,
which has been presented as a “study,” was prepared by Al-Mutawakel Taha, a
senior official with the ministry, to “refute” Jews’ claims to the Western
Wall.
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In the past, PA leaders and officials have also denied Jewish
rights to the Wall, insisting that the Temple Mount never stood in the
area.
The new document claims that the Western Wall, or Al- Buraq Wall,
as it is known to Muslims, constitutes Waqf property owned by an Algerian-
Moroccan Muslim family.
It claims there isn’t one stone in the wall that
belongs to the era of King Solomon.
The “study” also contends that the
path next to the Western Wall was never a public road, but was established only
for the use of Muslims living in the area or making their way toward the mosques
on the Temple Mount.
“The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims
that it owns this wall, which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel,” Taha, who is
also a renowned Palestinian poet and writer, wrote in his
project.
“Al-Buraq Wall is in fact the western wall of Al-Aksa
Mosque.”
He added that the Jews had never used the site for worship until
the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
“This wall was never part of the
so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front
of it and weep over its destruction,” he wrote. “During the British mandate in
Palestine, the number of Jews who visited the wall increased to a point where
the Muslims felt threatened, and then there was the Al-Buraq Revolution on
August 23, 1929, where dozens of Muslims were martyred and a large number of
Jews were killed.”
Taha was referring to an Arab uprising throughout
Palestine over access to the Western Wall during which 133 Jews and 116 Arabs
were killed over a few weeks.
The author, who is affiliated with PA
President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, emphasizes that over the past few
decades, Jews have failed to prove that the wall has any connection to their
religion.
“Many studies published by Jewish experts have affirmed that
there is no archeological evidence that the Temple Mount was built during the
period of King Solomon,” the paper added. “One can only conclude that Al-Buraq
Wall is a Muslim wall and an integral part of the Aksa Mosque and Haram
al-Sharif. No one has the right to claim ownership over it or change its
features or original character. Also, no one has the right to agree with the
occupation state’s racist and oppressive measures against history and holy
sites.”
The PA ministry’s study also warned that “no Muslim or Arab or
Palestinian had the right to give up one stone of Al-Buraq Wall or other
religious sites.”