This paper reports that PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud al Habbash stated in a Channel 10 interview Monday that
"all the holy places, including the Aksa mosque and the Western Wall" rightfully belong to the Palestinian Authority and must be returned as well. When asked whether Jews will be able to pray at the Western Wall, Habbash said that politics and religion are two separate things and that there will be no religious limitations. "Ahalan Wasahalan! [Welcome, Welcome!] All may worship as they wish under the Palestinian Authority," exclaimed Habbash.
Back in 2007, we had a retro-version of this which I noted at the time and provided historical background, including the 1930 International Commission’s report whose members, and here they are -
Credit: Matson Collection
i- produced which was quite detrimental to the Jews, a report upon which Arafat at the time and others, and now Habbash, base themselves.
Last week’s Erekat rant about the local Arabs being Natufians and predating Joshua is another outlandish and unsupportable claim. But this is the mindset of those Arabs who refer to themselves as ‘Palestinians”. It’s their national narrative of disinventivity. And no one in the post-Edward Said Orientalism world challenges them, not to mention telling them to lay off the historical inaccuracies and myth-making.
In 1922, it was the “historical connection” of the Jews to the Land of Israel of which all the civilized world knew and accepted that enabled the decision to reconstitute our national homeland. There were no “Arabs” to be granted political rights in this land but rather individuals who were to have their religious rights and civil liberties guaranteed.
Any Jew or any supporter of Israel’s security who agrees to such a suggestion as Habbash’s is inane as the thinking that it can be assured and that no rocks will come down from above, from the Temple Mount.
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