TO ensure their possession of, and domination over, the land of Palestine in general and Jerusalem in particular, certain Jews are ready to do anything, even if they have to falsify the well- established history of Palestine. On April 15 and 16, the Jewish writer and activist Elie Wiesel published a full-page advertisement in some major US newspapers, such as The Washington Post, The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune. In this advertisement, he emphasised the importance of Jerusalem to the Jews and their historical right in the Holy City. Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, was once considered a messenger of peace to humankind and received the Nobel peace price in 1986. He seems to have lost his credibility among many of his readers because of this controversial ad in which he intended to deny the Muslims and Arabs any historical or religious rights in the Holy City. To prove his point, he claimed that the Muslims' Holy Book of the Qur'an does not include any mention of Jerusalem while it is mentioned more than six hundred times in the Scriptures. Wiesel recounted that “since King David took Jerusalem as his capital, Jews have dwelled inside its walls with only two interruptions”. These were “when the Roman invaders forbade them access to the city and again when, under Jordanian occupation, Jews, regardless of nationality, were refused entry into the old Jewish quarter to meditate and pray at the Wall, the last vestige of Solomon's Temple”. In giving this historical reference, Wiesel meant to imply a deeply rooted Jewish presence in the city. However, he omitted the fact that long before King David's reign, Jerusalem had always been an Arab land. History books affirmed that an Arab tribe established the city of Jerusalem more than 5,000 years ago. In the Old Testament even the name of one of the Yabosian Arab rulers is mentioned and he is called Malaki Sadek. Those Yabosians were a branch of the Canaanite Arab people, the ancestors of the Palestinian people living there today. So when Allah chose Jerusalem to be the capital city of King David's kingdom, the Jews lived in the city alongside the original Arab inhabitants. Those same inhabitants had assisted the Prophet Solomon, son of David, to rebuild the Old Mosque as they were also worshipping the faith of Abraham. Previously, when Moses led the Bani Israel or Israelites out of Egypt to Palestine, they refused to enter it, fearing to fight the land's original dwellers, and preferred to live in the Sinai desert for long years, until King David received Allah's command to enter the land of Palestine. Therefore, when the noted Jewish writer attempted to ensurethe rights of the Jews in the city and deny those of the Arabs, he was fabricating some historical facts clearly included in the Old Testament and other ancient books. Another important falsification included in his controversial ad was the claim that the “Jews who were ready to die for Jerusalem would not kill for Jerusalem”. In other words, the Jewish activist wants the world to close its eyes to the massacres, mass cleansing, deportations, and house demolitions committed by Israel against the Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem and to believe that Israel's rule of Jerusalem is not harming the lives of the Palestinian inhabitants. “Today, for the first time in history, Jews, Christians and Muslims all may freely worship at their shrines. And contrary to certain media reports, Jews, Christians and Muslims are allowed to build their homes anywhere in the city,” he emphasised in his ad. With these silly and baseless words, Wiesel denies a clear reality fully-known to the entire world, not even denied by the Israeli government over the actual living conditions in Jerusalem, which deprive Palestinians of worshipping at Al-Aqsa mosque or of freely building their houses anywhere in the city. On the contrary, demolishing Palestinian houses in order to create Jewish settlements in their place have become daily news in the world's media. The Israeli Premier does not even veil his intentions towards the city and insists that any talk about freezing building of settlements on the occupied territories should not include Jerusalem. Such a false image that Wiesel tries to propagate about the living condition of Muslims, Jews and Christians under Israeli rule has drawn criticism even from some Israeli figures. Haaretz newspaper carried an article by Yossi Sarid accusing Wiesel of being out of touch with the realities of life in Jerusalem. The US organisation Americans for Peace Now has also lashed out at Wiesel, affirming that equal residential rights do not exist in the city. In their open letter to him, Americans for Peace Now stated: "Jerusalem is not just a Jewish symbol. It is also a holy city to billions of Christians and Muslims worldwide. It is Israel's capital, but it is also a focal point of Palestinian national aspirations." Regarding Muslims' religious rights in the city, Wiesel claims that no reference to the city exists in the Qur an while the first verse of Suret Al-Esraa speaks of the night journey of the Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) from Al- Masjid Al-Haram (in Mecca) to Al-Masjid Al- Aqsa (in Jerusalem). No-one denies the historical and religious fact that Muslims were directing their face in prayer towards Al-Aqsa mosque. In that mosque the Prophet Mohamed, the final Messenger of Allah, led all the former prophets in prayer before being taken up through the seven heavens to within the presence of Allah Himself. By leading all prophets of Allah, from Adam to Jesus in this prayer, the Prophet Mohamed and his follow Muslims were taking command of Jerusalem, the city of the prophets of Allah. Accordingly, while Wiesel and many other Jews deny the Muslims the right to the Holy City, all Muslims acknowledge that this city and all Palestine was a holy land that witnessed the birth, life or passage of all prophets of Allah. This miraculous night journey of the Prophet Mohamed to Jerusalem, from where he ascended to the seven heavens completed the Jerusalem story with all the prophets and announced its shift to the Islamic religion. When Jerusalem became a real Arab Muslim city during rule of the second Caliph Omar ben Al-Khattab, the then Christian archbishop insisted on handing over the city's key to the caliph himself and not any of his emirs. By so doing, he obtained a written promise from the Muslim caliph to protect the religious rights of all other non-Muslim inhabitants of Palestine. For many centuries, Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together in peace and enjoyed real freedom of worship under the Muslim rule, not as that being claimed by Elie Wiesel. It was only during the period of the Crusaders that religious conflict erupted and many Muslims and Jews were slain by the invaders. Wiesel concluded his ad by urging the world not to put pressure on Israel to reach a solution to the ongoing conflict on Jerusalem. Instead he urges delaying the “most difficult and sensitive” issue, until a way is found enabling the Israeli and Palestinian communities to live together in an atmosphere of security! This ad would be more fruitful and reputable if Wiesel had suggested treating the city in a special way as a holy place for the three divine religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and distancing it from the current political conflict. Dear readers are invited to contribute their comments, views and questions via 111- 115 Ramsis St., Cairo or e-mail: ([email protected])
