The Holy al-Aqsa Sanctuary Under Threat › ... › 01 › al-aqsa-report2013.pdf · THE HOLY AL-AQSA SANCTUARY UNDER THREAT 7 For the next 500 years Jerusalem remained under Roman

THE HOLY AL-AQSA SANCTUARY UNDER THREAT

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The Holy al-Aqsa SanctuaryUnder Threat

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Contents

Introduction

PART I

Chapter One: A Brief History of Masjid al-AqsaBackgroundThe Crusaders and MamluksBritish Mandate and the Struggle for the al-Buraq Wall - 1928-1929Zionists and the al-Buraq WallCommission ruling on the al-Buraq Wall - 1931

Chapter Two: 1967, The Six Day WarThe formation of the State of IsraelThe Six Day War, 1967UNESCO Heritage StatusThe Politics of Administrating the al-Aqsa Sanctuary

PART II

Chapter Three: Attacks on Masjid al-Aqsa since 1967Arson attack in 1969Escalation of attacks in the 1980sThe Jewish Underground in 1984Temple Mount FaithfulAl-Aqsa IntifadaGaza DisengagementRecent Attacks

Chapter Four: Tunnelling under al-Aqsa and ExcavationsDigging and Excavations after 1967The Western Wall Tunnel in 1996The Maghrebi Gate AscentRecent Developments

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Chapter Five: Judaising Jerusalem and impact on the al-Aqsa SanctuaryHistorical Roots of Judaisation of JerusalemCreating a Jewish Jerusalem: Planning policies, home demolitions and ID cardsStatistics on Revocation of Residency RightsSettlements and the Separation WallRestricted Access to al-Aqsa Sanctuary

PART III

Chapter Six: Al-Aqsa in the Zionist VisionEarly Zionism and JerusalemDivisions about the Status of JerusalemA New Movement: Religious ZionismJewish Rulings on Entering the Temple Mount / al-Aqsa Sanctuary

Chapter Seven: The Temple Movement of IsraelOrganisations with the aim of demolishing Masjid al-Aqsa and Building a Jewish TempleInside IsraelThe Temple InstituteTemple Mount FaithfulMovement for the Establishment of the TempleTemple Admirers CoalitionOutside Israel

Chapter Eight: The Armageddon LobbyChristian Zionism and the threat to Masjid al-AqsaBeliefs of Christian Zionists and the Jewish TempleHistorical Roots of Christian ZionismAmerica and Christian ZionismNotable Christian Zionist Organisations within the UKNotable Christian Zionist Organisations within the USA

Conclusion

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Introduction

The al-Aqsa Sanctuary is the holiest Islamic site in Jerusalem. It houses the Dome of the Rock and Masjid al-Aqsa. It was the first qibla for the Muslims; the second Masajid built on Earth and remains the third holiest site in Islam. The al-Aqsa Sanctuary plateau has been in contin-uous use by Muslims for prayers over the last 1,400 years, with the brief exception of the crusader occupa-tion. This holy land was also the station of the Prophet Muhammed when he was transported to heaven during the incredible night journey of al-Isra and al-Mi’raj.

In Surah al-Isra (17:1), reference is made to Prophet Muhammed’s night journey. Here, there is a direct reference to the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary which Allah has blessed for mankind in order for us to reap spiritual and material benefit from it.

It is worth noting that when the Holy Qu’ran refers to Masjid al-Aqsa (a place of prostration), this encom-passes all the land of the entire al-Aqsa Sanctuary and not just the buildings within its boundaries. Although the buildings within the noble Sanctuary,

like the black domed Masjid al-Aqsa and gold domed Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhrah) are of great historical significance, one must understand that it is the land that is holy and blessed and not the bricks and mortar.1 As such, the entire area of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary is blessed, holy and held in high regard by Muslims across the world.

The al-Aqsa Sanctuary is no doubt one of the most sensitive and contentious sites on Earth. As well as the lofty regard held for it by the Islamic faith, the site is also known to the Jews as the Temple Mount and is believed to be the site where the Jewish Temple stood. The Second Temple was demolished on orders from Rome in 70 A.D.2 The Western Wall, believed to be part of the second Temple, forms part of the supporting structure of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. The entire site has historically been a Muslim Waqf (trust) and Jewish law prohibited Jewish people from visit-ing the Temple Mount.

Since the occupation of East Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary by Israel began in 1967, Masjid

Limitless is He Who carried His servant by night from the Holy Masjid (in Makkah) to the Farther Masjid (in Jerusalem) whose surroundings We have blessed that We might show him some of Our Signs. Indeed He alone is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. [Al-Isra 17:1]


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al-Aqsa and the worshippers within it have faced increasing danger from attacks and threats emanating from various Zionist and extremist Jewish groups. This report explores these issues as well as the background which allowed these threats to emerge. The report is divided into three Parts; Part I encompasses Chapters One and Two which detail the relevant historical background. Beginning with a brief history of Masjid al-Aqsa from the earliest times up to the occupation in 1967, the first chapter also assesses the conflict over the Western (or ‘Wailing’) Wall and the UN ruling in 1931. The second chapter considers the implications of the occupation of 1967, the role of the UN following the illegal annexa-tion of East Jerusalem as well as the changing political dynamics of how the al-Aqsa Sanctuary is adminis-trated.

Part II considers the threats levelled against the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary, detailing the overt and covert dangers it faces. Chapter Three provides an overview of attacks on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary from 1967 and the threats to the buildings in the precinct from tunnelling and excava-tions carried out by Israel in the holy city. Chapters Four and Five continue to explore the specific groups that pose a threat to the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary. Chapter Six considers in detail the Judiasation of Jerusalem by setting out how Israel uses policies such as town planning, home demoli-tion, ID cards, settlements and the Separation Wall to control the city and wrest it away from its Palestinian citizens. The chapter explains how these policies have effectively pushed Palestinians out of Jerusalem whilst bringing in more and more Jewish settlers to strengthen Israel’s claims to the city. The impact of these polices on the Palestinians and their access to Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Sanctuary is explored.

Part III focuses on Political movements and ideologies within Israel and considers the ramifica-tions of their aspirations. Chapter Six assesses the changing signifi-cance of Jerusalem (or al-Quds) in Zionist thought as well as the emergence of ‘Religious Zionism’. This new movement has led to the rise of the Israeli Temple Movement which encourages Jews to visit the Temple Mount and also insists that Jewish people should enjoy exclusive ‘property ownership’ of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. Chapter Seven focuses on the rise of the Temple Movement in Israel which seeks to destroy all the buildings on the Sanctuary and occupy it. It will explore the rising influence of these organisations, their leaders, their logic, their funding as well as their aspirations with regards to the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. Organisa-tions such as the Temple Institute, the Movement for the Establishment of the Temple and leaders such as Gershon Salomon and Yehuda Etzion are profiled in depth.

Chapter Eight looks at the role that Christian Zionism plays with regards to supporting the Temple Movement of Israel and the unique threat it poses to the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary. As well as a brief historical introduction to the rise of Christian Zionism, the chapter explores the political beliefs of the movement and why it supports the re-building of the Jewish Temple. Major organisations and leaders of Christian Zionism in the UK and America are profiled and the threat they pose to Masjid al-Aqsa is assessed.

This report intends to clarify all the very real and present dangers posed to the sacred al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary and the Palestinian people of Jerusalem, who have lived in the city for centuries. It will serve to highlight the danger al-Aqsa Sanctuary faces and the urgent need required to avoid inflaming the region.

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Chapter One: A Brief History of Masjid al-Aqsa

Within the Islamic tradition, the building of Masjid al-Aqsa dates back to the time of the first man on Earth - Adam . It is the consen-sus of Muslims that Adam first built the Ka’bah in Makkah and then built Masjid al-Aqsa in al-Quds (Jerusalem). Centuries later Prophet Ebrahim (Abraham) re-built Masjid al-Aqsa with his son Ishaq . He also re-built the Ka’bah in Makkah with his other son Ismail. In later times Prophet Dawud (David) began the process of re-building Masjid al-Aqsa but passed away before the reconstruction was complete and his son Sulayman then took up the task of complet-ing the building of Masjid al-Aqsa. The importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish faith stems from this point in time and the building of al-Aqsa by Sulayman is known in Jewish history as Solomon’s Temple or the First Temple.

In the years following Prophet Sulayman’s death, his kingdom was split into two and a cult developed in the Temple with elaborate rituals and a paid priesthood.3 In 586 BC the

King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, invaded the city and destroyed every-thing within it including the Temple/ Masjid al-Aqsa.4 In 536 BC, the Persians overthrew the Babylonians and a Second Temple was built and completed over a period of twenty years. This was followed by 200 years of relative peace in Jerusalem until the Greeks captured the city, re-dedicated the Temple to Zeus and subsequently sparked a revolt.

The Hasmonean Jewish sect captured the Temple in 164 BC and re-consecrated the Temple. A hundred years later, however, Rome took Jerusalem and Herod was appointed King of Judea. Herod killed the last of the Hasmonean Jews and lavishly restored and extended the Second Temple.5 A period of disorder and chaos ensued during which the Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus) was born and called people to go back to the true teachings of Abraham and Moses. In 70 AD, Rome dispatched Titus who captured Jerusalem, ordered the total destruction of the Herodian Second Temple6 and expelled all the Jews from the city.

Background


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For the next 500 years Jerusalem remained under Roman (Byzan-tine) rule which was only briefly disrupted by a Sassanid Persian invasion. Muslim rule over the holy city began in 638CE when the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab , the leader of the Muslims and a distin-guished companion of the Prophet Muhammad liberated Jerusalem. This victory was different to those historically witnessed by this city, as unlike other victors, the Muslim army did not commit any massacres and there was no bloodshed once the Muslims were in the city. Caliph Umar entered Jerusalem on foot reflecting his great humbleness despite the victory in capturing the great city. Umar found the Holy Sanctuary of al-Aqsa covered in rubbish and began to clear it using his own hands. He was then joined speedily by the other companions of the Prophet Muhammad and the area was cleared. At this time, Umar placed the foundation stone for the Masjid to be built within the Sanctu-

ary and a timber Masjid which held three thousand worshippers was built on this site. Today, the black/green domed Masjid stands on the spot of the original Masjid laid by Umar .

Fifty years later the Caliph Abdul Malik ibn Marwan commissioned the construction of the iconic Dome of the Rock and following this, his son built a solid structured Masjid on the original site of the timber Masjid built by Umar . It was large enough to accommodate approximately 5,000 worshippers. The Masjid design is simple and elegant; it contains seven arches which correspond with seven entrances to the building. The main archway is elevated and leads to the dome which has a beautifully painted and decorated interior. As well as 121 stained-glass windows and intricate mosaics, the Masjid roof is supported by impressive columns of pale marble. The atmosphere inside the Masjid is one of peace, tranquil-lity and spirituality.

The following five centuries of Muslim rule over Jerusalem passed peacefully and the city flourished to become a centre of learning as evidenced by the numerous religious institutes (Madrassas) built within the Old City walls. During most of this time, Muslims lived in harmony alongside Jews and Christians in Jerusalem.

In 1096, the Crusade for Jerusa-lem was called by Pope Urban II and hundreds of thousands of Christians were mobilised.7 On 7 June 1099, the Crusaders besieged the city. Upon entering they massacred 40,000 men, women and children in the streets and made no distinction between Palestinian Muslims, Jews or Chris-tians. ‘Muslim soldiers were slaugh-tered in al-Aqsa Masjid after being

guaranteed amnesty there. The city’s Jews were burned alive in their main synagogue where they had huddled together for refuge.’8

Once the Crusaders controlled the city, Masjid al-Aqsa was subdivided into a royal palace, headquarters and barracks of the Knights Templar and was renamed the ‘Templum Solomonis’. The Crusaders attempted to erase every possible trace of Islamic tradition in the al-Aqsa Sanctuary, plaster-ing over Qur’anic inscriptions and placing a cross on the dome. In 1146, Nuradeen ibn Zangi, ruler of Aleppo commissioned an extraordinary cedar Mimbar to be built and vowed to place it in al-Aqsa Masjid on the day the Crusaders were expelled from Jerusalem.9 In 1187, it was his

The Crusaders and Mamluks

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disciple Salah ud-Deen al-Ayyubi who would reclaim Jerusalem for Muslims following a 12-day siege against the Crusaders. ‘There was no bloodshed. There were no massacres. Those who wanted to leave were permitted to do so, with all their goods. Those who wanted to stay were guaranteed protection for their lives, property, and their places of worship.’10

Masjid al-Aqsa was purified with rosewater, the cross was removed from the Dome of the Rock and the entire Sanctuary was reinstated as a Masjid. Nuradeen’s Mimbar was placed in the Masjid and after 88 years under occupation, Jumu’a prayers were held at the Masjid once again. Another Crusader campaign began from 1189-1192 headed by Richard the Lion heart, which succeeded in the coastal area of Acre but never

captured Jerusalem. After Salah ud-Deen al-Ayyubi

passed away the Mamluks took control of Jerusalem and ruled it from 1250 until 1516. The Mamluks constructed numerous buildings throughout Jerusalem including forty-four Islamic schools, the minarets on the northern and western boundaries of the Noble Sanctu-ary as well as the arched colonnade entrances surrounding the Dome of the Rock platform.11 Thereafter, the Ottomans took control. On entering Jerusalem, the Ottoman Sultan Selim was entrusted with the keys to Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock. The Ottomans ruled over Jerusalem for approximately 400 years until the Empire collapsed and the British Mandate over Jerusalem began in 1918.

CHAPTER ONE A BRIEF HISTORY OF MASJID AL-AQSA

During the British Mandate period, the imperial policy promoted seeking resolution of conflicts through mutual agreement. Failing this, the status quo would be enforced. However, this policy faced severe restraints in Palestine where the Zionists were becoming a formi-dable force against the Palestinians and increased immigration by Jews from all over Europe and their import of guns and artillery resulted in a power-imbalance. Further exacerbat-ing the situation, in 1917 the Foreign Secretary of Britain, Lord Balfour wrote a letter promising the Jewish people a homeland in Palestine, thus undermining the British claim to impartiality. With the rising influ-ence of Zionist ideology and tacit support from the British, Palestine’s fate seemed to be sealed.

Conflict between the native Pales-tinians and the immigrant Jewish people resulted in rising tensions in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine. In September 1928, a dispute erupted over the Western Wall which forms one of the boundary walls of the Muslim Waqf property of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. The wall is revered by Muslims not only as part of the Noble Sanctuary, but also as the Wall to which the Prophet tethered his steed known as al-Buraq on the night he ascended to the heavens during the Night Journey. Consequently, the Wall became known as the al-Buraq Wall. The conflict over the Wall dates back to the Middle Ages but essentially the Muslims feared that if they acquiesced to Jewish demands for control and access, then the whole area would quickly be taken away from them.12

British Mandate and the Struggle for the al-Buraq Wall - 1928-1929


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Emboldened by the Balfour Declaration and the support of the British, Jews began to challenge the status quo and demanded possession of the Wall and the surrounding area in the 1920’s.13 On the eve of Yom Kippur on 23 September 1928, a screen was attached to the pavement in front of the Wall in prepara-tion which unsettled the Muslim Guardian and also blocked public thoroughfare. Edward Keith-Roach, Deputy District Commissioner of Jerusalem ordered the removal of the screen and was assured that it would be removed. However, the next day the screen was still there and so the Palestinians complained again.

The British police were sent in to investigate, but the Jewish worship-pers refused to remove it as it was a holy day and they were not permitted

to work. The following tussle sparked a strong Jewish reaction with protests, accusations of police brutality and demands for the Wall to be passed to them. The Mufti of Jerusalem, who was ultimately in charge of all Waqf property including the Wall, entered the conflict to protect the Wall from Jewish claims and asked for interna-tional support.14

A white paper submitted to the British government in November 1928 reiterated the rights of Muslim Palestinians to the Wall: ‘The Wall is also part of the Haram-al-Sharif; as such, it is holy to Moslems. Moreo-ver, it is legally the absolute property of the Moslem community, and the strip of pavement facing it is Waqf property, as is shown by documents preserved by the Guardian of the Waqf.’15

While the Mufti’s response may seem to be an over-reaction, it was in fact the response to repeated schemes by the Zionists to gain ownership of the Wall. In 1926, Colonel Frederick H. Kisch head of the political depart-ment of the Zionist Executive, devised a scheme to start buying property opposite the Wall which was only partially Waqf and convert it into ‘Jewish Waqf ’. In November 1926, the Jews bought a large property fifty metres from a gate of the Sanctuary and by late 1928, Chaim Weizmann, president of the Zionist Organization had raised £61,000 to purchase the Wall.16

The Mufti also revealed that he had been approached by a promi-nent person with a £50,000 bribe along with £400,000 for the Wall. Whilst some have noted that the figures may have been inflated, the attempt to bribe the Mufti may be true.17 He also had reason to believe that the British wanted to appropri-

ate the Wall and hand it to the Jews as ‘there was a hint of this in 1928 when Storrs, while trying to persuade the Palestinian Muslims to sell, used the argument that they might later get nothing for it because it might be taken in a city improvement plan.’18

In fact, there seems to have been an incident in 1925, when the Jews called on the British to either force Palestinians to sell their properties or to expropriate the Wall and hand it over to the Jews. In 1928, the Mufti convened a Conference and helped to set up the Society for the Defence of Masjid al-Aqsa.

Tension built up again following the Palestinian attempts to repair their own facilities near the Wall in July 1929 and protests were organ-ised by Zionists who claimed that this was in violation of their rights. As well as increased Zionist militant activity, one Jewish newspaper told their readers not to stop protest-ing until the Wall was ‘restored to

Zionists and the al-Buraq Wall

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us’.19 Muslim leaders responded by reiterating the pledge made in the White Paper to maintain the status quo in the city. When the govern-ment requested that all renovations be suspended until legal rights be established by Law officers, the mufti of Jerusalem agreed. ‘The Law Offic-ers had to delay their report for three months while the Zionists fruitlessly searched for documentary evidence of Jewish rights at the Wall.’20 The report reasserted the Palestinian right to make restorations to its own property but recommended that renovation work doesn’t interrupt Jewish worshippers during ‘custom-ary times of prayer’.21

On 14 August 1929, 6,000 Jewish youths marched around the Old City of Jerusalem and held an aggressive demonstration at the Wall in revolt against the resumed restorations, where they shouted provocations such as ‘the Wall is ours’, raised the Zionist flag and sang the Zionist anthem. It was also rumoured that they had attacked Palestin-ian Muslim residents and cursed Prophet Muhammad . In retalia-tion, Muslims marched to the Wall

and burned religious documents and the next day a Jewish boy was stabbed by an Arab man. In response an Arab boy, seemingly selected randomly was stabbed in retaliation. Violence spiralled outward from Jerusalem across the entire country. In Hebron sixty-four Jews were murdered by Arabs whilst Jewish mobs murdered Arabs in Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa;,where an imam and six Muslims were killed in a Masjid.22

Hearing of the conflict in Jerusa-lem, Zionist supporters in London renewed their demands that the Wall be expropriated for the Jews.23

The British harshly suppressed the Palestinian Arabs during the rebel-lion- killing and wounding hundreds of innocent protesters, rounding up 1,000 people for trial and condemn-ing twenty-five of those to death. By the time the British halted the revolt, 133 Jews and more than 116 Arabs had been killed.24 A commission setup by the British to investigate the incident concluded that the Zionist demonstration was the immediate cause of the violence although Arab and Zionist extremists had contrib-uted to its escalation.25

CHAPTER ONE A BRIEF HISTORY OF MASJID AL-AQSA

In an attempt to resolve the issue of conflicting claims to the Western Wall a Commission was set up in 1930 with jurists from Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands in order to investigate the matter and come to a decision. The Report was commissioned by Britain with the approval of the League of Nations, which was an early version of the United Nations. The Commis-sion held twenty-three meetings during which it heard from fifty-two witnesses who presented the Jewish and Muslim claims. It examined ‘all reports, dispatches, memoranda, minutes relative to matters connected to the Wailing Wall’ and concluded

unequivocally that the evidence showed ‘the ownership of the Wall, as well as the possession of it and of those parts of its surroundings belong to the Moslems and that the Wall itself, as an integral part of Al-Haram-Esh-Sharif area, is Moslem property.’26

It also added that no matter how the Jewish claim is construed, ‘it does not exceed a claim for privilege to visit the Wall and that this privilege has even resulted from Moslem toler-ance.’ As such, ‘the Pavement in front of the Wall, where the Jews perform their devotions, is also Moslem property.’27 The report also reiterated

Commission ruling on the al-Buraq Wall - 1931


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the findings of the White Paper of November 1928 which found that the Western or Wailing Wall was the legal and absolute property of the Muslim community as well as the fact that the terms of the Mandate had guaranteed immunity to all Muslim shrines.28

Even so, the British Mandate government did issue ‘temporary’ instructions that certain portable appurtenances explicitly associated with Jewish worship were allowed at all times; additional items were also permitted for the Sabbath and Holy Day services. Public access was also restricted during the times of [Jewish] worship. These conces-sions, when taken together, resulted in the area slowly being established as an indisputable Jewish Sanctu-ary; and the situation on the ground was allowed to change to accommo-

date this establishment, despite the unequivocal rights and ownership of Muslims over the area.29

This event was one of the earliest signs that the growing Jewish popula-tion in Palestine posed a real threat to the sanctity of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary as they failed to accept the historic and legal status of the al-Buraq Wall as Muslim Waqf property. Since that time, a pattern of insidious and expansionary designs has emerged ‘which threaten[ed] Muslim rights at the al-Aqsa Masjid.’30 At the very least, the changing situation on the ground illustrated that Zionist leaders had been granted credibility in their attempts to challenge the status quo within Jerusalem due to their political influence in London but also because of commitments made in the Balfour Declaration.31

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Chapter Two: 1967, The Six Day War

By 1947 Britain realised that the problems created under the Mandate were intractable due to a campaign of organised daily Zionist terror which targeted both the Palestinians and the British, most infamously with the bombing of the King David Hotel on 22 July 1946 which killed 91 people. The British decided to leave, handing over responsibility to the United Nations (UN). The UN recommended the creation of a separate Palestinian and Jewish state by splitting Palestine and allocating a 55% share of the land to the minority immigrant Jewish population, and 45% to the indigenous Palestinians. The UN did not have the mandate to hand over sovereignty of the Palestinian homeland and the native population was deeply hostile to the partition plan as the citizens of any state would be if the UN attempted to carve up their homes and hand it over to another group of people who had only recently migrated there. Hostilities erupted and continued for

a period of 20 months, culminating in 1948 with Zionists unilaterally declaring the creation of the state of Israel over 78% of Palestinian land.

On 14 May 1948, the formation of an Israeli state was declared by David Ben-Gurion. Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock had both sustained damage from the crossfire during hostilities but remained in the hands of Palestinians, albeit admin-istered under Jordanian rule. This was all to change after the war of 1967. On 7 June 1967, Israeli tanks and soldiers captured Jerusalem and entered the Noble Sanctuary. While the hope of rebuilding the Third Temple has always been part of Judaism, it was only during that second half of the twentieth century that this hope actually became a possibility. After capturing Jerusa-lem, Israeli commander Motte Gur made the famous declaration: “the Temple Mount is in our hands”.32

The formation of the State of Israel


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As Hamblinn and Seely of Solomon’s Temple: Myth and History state: “The Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem in the wake of the Six-Day War in 1967 radically transformed the perception of a possible third temple among both the Jews and Christians. As Israeli troops occupied the Temple Mount on 7 June 1967, Rabbi Shlomo Goren advocated destroying the Dome of the Rock on the spot...”33 Although Goren was prevented by an Israeli commander, this was very much to the dismay of both Jewish and Christian Zionists.

The Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Dayan granted authority over the al-Aqsa Sanctuary to the Jerusa-lem’s Islamic Waqf whilst proclaim-ing full authority of the Western Wall and plaza.34 The fact that the al-Aqsa Sanctuary was returned to the Palestinians is clear recognition of its significance to the Muslims. The adjacent Maghribi quarter (area adjacent to the al Aqsa Sanctu-ary) was not so fortunate; Israeli forces destroyed ‘two Masajid and 135 homes were bulldozed, leaving six hundred and fifty Muslims homeless.’35

The Maghribi quarter in front of the al-Buraq Wall was razed to create a large plaza for Jewish worshippers. Nearly one thousand Palestinian residents of the Old

City, many of whom had first been made refugees in the 1948 war, became refugees for a second time and were later banished into the West Bank by checkpoints and the Israeli Separation Wall.36 In Novem-ber 1967, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242, which called on Israel to withdraw its armed forces from terri-tories occupied in the 1967 conflict.

The capture of East Jerusalem, however, spurred Israelis on to fulfil all the elements of the Zionist national dream including the rebuild-ing of the Third Temple. Extremist groups began performing Jewish prayer services in the area of the Sanctuary despite a prohibition by the Chief Rabbinate of Jews who pronounced that setting foot in the Sanctuary is forbidden for fear of violating its sanctity. Although the religious Jewish code of Law states that the Temple would be rebuilt after the coming of the Messiah, many secular Zionist and Christian Zionist elements are keen to see it built now37 in an effort to speed up the coming of the Messiah. Ignoring the inter-national recognition of Palestinian ownership of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and undermining the existence of the sacred Masjid al-Aqsa, extremist Zionist fundamentalists now seek to establish an exclusive place of Jewish worship on the Noble Sanctuary.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisa-tion’s (UNESCO) involvement in Jerusalem dates back to 1967 amid growing Palestinian concerns follow-ing the demolition of the Maghribi quarter (which is now part of the Jewish Quarter) as well as the large

scale excavations such as those on the southern edge of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.38 A strong condemnation was issued at the UNESCO General Conference the following year with reference to Israeli archaeological excavations in the Old City and any attempts to alter its “features or its

The Six Day War, 1967

UNESCO Heritage Status

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CHAPTER TWO 1967, THE SIX DAY WAR

cultural and historical character, particularly with regards to Christian and Islamic religious sites.”39

In 1974, this public disapproval was followed by a suspension of all forms of assistance to Israel due to its ‘persistent non-compliance’ and failure in preserving the historical features of the city of Jerusalem.40 In 1981, Jerusalem’s Old City and its walls were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as an example of a ‘masterpiece of human creative genius’. Whilst this was an attempt to bring the Old City under the protec-tion of the World Heritage Commit-tee, Israel refused to endorse the decision arguing instead that Jordan

had no right to nominate the Old City to UNESCO in the first place.

Israel later acknowledged the World Heritage Convention in 1999 although it continues to disregard UNESCO’s legal provisions.41 The city was also inscribed onto the World Heritage List in Danger in 1982. Ismail Patel of Friends of Al Aqsa has remarked that we are currently in one of the bleakest periods in the history of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary, ‘where not only the structural build-ings within it are in danger of being physically destroyed but the whole of al-Aqsa Sanctuary is threatened with occupation and removal from Muslim hands.’42

Ownership of the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary presents one of the most conten-tious issues of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Although the al-Aqsa Sanctuary has been under Muslim rule for centuries, this has been under various administrations. During the Ottoman period, Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Sanctuary were controlled and maintained under the Muslim Waqf system. After 1948, the Jorda-nian government maintained this arrangement. However on 7 June 1967, as set out above, Israel captured the eastern part of Jerusalem which had been inhabited by Palestinian Arabs for centuries. Within weeks, Israel had passed two new laws which extended Israeli legal jurisdiction and administration over East Jerusalem and also incorporated the area into the West Jerusalem Municipality.43 Thus, Israel effectively annexed East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is occupied land and therefore prohibited from being annexed by the Fourth Geneva Convention, rendering this purported annexation by Israel illegal.

By 1970, the Israeli government accepted the Awqaf Administration’s de facto control over the al-Aqsa Sanctuary, other Masajid, cemeteries and tombs in East Jerusalem.44 Even so, Israel refuses to recognise the authority of the Awqaf Administra-tion and actions such as tunnelling, archaeological excavation, demoli-tions, and redevelopment by Israeli institutions have undermined its authority. Israel also undermined its resource base by acquiring Waqf land and property either directly or through Israeli settlers. Michael Dumper, author of Islam and Israel, states that this law should be seen in the context of the Israeli govern-ment’s attempts to make the annexa-tion of East Jerusalem more accept-able to Muslim Palestinians.

Following the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, Jordan contin-ued to play an intermediary role in the conflict and sponsored various Resolutions before the UN General Assembly, the Security Council and UNESCO; condemning Israeli viola-

The Politics of Administrating al-Aqsa Sanctuary


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tions of international law regarding the holy places and Waqf.45 These protests had little impact on the ground and Israel was not effectively reprimanded for any of its violations. Jordan was also the major contribu-tor to the preservation and restoration of Holy sites in Jerusalem between 1967-1987, contributing $7.5 million to the restoration projects.46

In the 1994 Peace Treaty between Israel and Jordan, Israel stated that it ‘respects’ Jordan’s ‘special role’ in the ‘Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusa-lem’ and that Jordan would be given high priority when negotiations took place between Israel and Palestinians over its permanent status.47 Jordan exercises control of the Waqf ’s top post whilst the Palestinian Author-ity is in charge of nominating the Mufti. However, Jonathon Cook explains that whilst Muslim authori-ties have been allowed - nominally at least - to maintain their unbroken 750-year control of the site, ‘Israeli police govern access to its nine entry gates, and can enter the compound at will...’48

Since 1967, Israel has focused its control on the al-Buraq Wall, which is just below the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. Although the al-Buraq Wall is Waqf property, Israel forcibly took charge of the area in 1967, demolished neighbouring Palestinian homes and created a plaza. By 1984, the Wall was registered as property of the Jewish state.49

Despite the Israeli measures, the Islamic Movement along with the Waqf worked to strengthen Palestin-ian control over the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary. As Cook notes: ‘the ease with which Jews can access sites in and around Jerusalem, while the city is off-limits to the vast majority of Pales-tinians highlights the extent to which Palestinian control over Jerusalem and its holy places has been eroded by the four decades of occupation.’50 As it stands, Israel claims sovereignty over the entire al-Aqsa Sanctuary but Palestinians hold unofficial custo-dianship through the Islamic Waqf. Many believe that this situation will not continue and that Israel is simply biding its time before moving to take over the Noble Sanctuary.

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Chapter Three: Attacks on Masjid al-Aqsa since 1967

On 21 August 1969, an Austral-ian Christian Zionist named Michael Dennis Rohan set fire to the interior of Masjid al-Aqsa. The fire destroyed the ancient minbar of Nuradeen commissioned 700 years before which was installed by the great Muslim hero Salah ad-Deen al Ayyubi. Rohan claimed he was ‘the Lord’s emissary’ and acting upon divine instructions. It is believed that Israeli authorities hindered efforts to extinguish the fire and Rohan, who sought refuge in a kibbutz, was freed after receiving psychiatric counselling with no further legal consequences for his crime.

In 1970, members of the Temple Mount Faithful forcibly entered the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and several Muslim worshippers suffered injuries from Israeli troop gunfire as the group of intruders confronted them. In 1976, Israeli courts permitted Jews to pray in the al-Aqsa Sanctuary but this was later revoked after riots broke out. Three years later in September, Jewish extremists blocked one of the entrances to the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary on Friday, pointing guns at the worshippers.

The sanctity and safety of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary has been under-mined since 1967, and threats to it have become increasingly serious. Since the illegal and unrecognised annexation of East Jerusalem, there

have been no less than 100 armed assaults on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary which averages out to more than two a year. “Sadly, the Israeli authorities, political and religious, have yet to condemn any of these attacks”.51

Arson attack in 1969


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In August 1981, an Israeli helicopter hovered at low altitude over Masjid al-Aqsa preventing worshippers inside from hearing the sermon. The same year, the adhan (call to prayer) was prohibited from the minaret overlooking the Western Wall due to a Jewish celebration. In 1982, there were significant attacks on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. The first, on 2 March, was by a Jewish terrorist and Talmudic student who launched an attacked from the Chain Gate (Bab Al-Silsila) after assaulting and overpowering a Muslim guard.

On 11 April 1982, Alan Henry Goodman, a Jewish American member of the Jewish Defence League who was also an Israeli soldier; entered the Dome of the Rock and brutally attacked worship-per, shooting those inside. During a meeting convened at the UN Security Council, the representative from the United Arab Emirates made the following statement:

‘The 11th of April 1982 will be recorded as one of the darkest days in the history not only of the

Muslim community, but of mankind in general. The sacrilegious attack perpetrated on that dark day against the sanctity of Haram al-Sharif, one of the holiest places of Islam, exemplifies the vulnerability of Jerusalem under Israeli occupation. The sad date of 11 April 1982 brings to mind the similar date of 21 August 1969 when the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was sent up in flames’.52

Two Palestinians were killed and 30 injured. In a disgraceful and contemptible act, the Israeli government subsequently pardoned Goodman after he spent just 15 years in prison, although his sentence for the crime was life in prison plus forty years. His pardon and release was a clear indication of how the state of Israel views the coldblooded murder of Palestinians. A couple of weeks later, the Jewish leader of the right-wing Political Party Kach, Meir Kahane, along with 100 of his followers stormed al-Aqsa Sanctuary with diagrams of the Temple he was planning to build ‘on the ruins’ of al-Aqsa Masjid.

The leaders of the Jewish Under-ground (who were founding figures in the Gush Emunim movement for settlements) prepared opera-tional plans to blow up the Masajid within al-Aqsa Sanctuary but they were apprehended in 1984.53 Jewish members of the movement to stop the withdrawal from Sinai as well as Gush Emunim (the Bloc of the Faithful) hoped that if they destroyed al-Aqsa they would thwart the peace treaty with Egypt.54 The ‘Lifta Underground’ - a group who sought to destroy al-Aqsa in order to pave

the way for Jewish redemption, made another attempt the same year.55

On the night of 27 January 1984, security guards spotted a group of Israelis armed with Uzi machine-guns approaching Masjid al-Aqsa. The guards confronted the group, who then fled leaving behind 3 kilograms of explosives, 2 ladders and 21 Israeli-manufactured grenades in the vicinity of al-Aqsa Sanctuary.56 On 1 August, the al-Aqsa security guards discovered another group preparing to blow up the Masjid.

Escalation of attacks in the 1980s

The Jewish Underground in 1984

18

Sheikh Saadeddin Al-Alami, mufti of Jerusalem said: ‘had it not been for the protection of God, the whole Masjid would have been completely obliterated.’57 On the same day, the Jewish terrorist Youssef Zeruya was convicted of plotting to blow up the Dome of the Rock Masjid and sentenced to three years in jail.

From this time armed Israeli guards began patrolling outside the gates of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and this has continued to the present day. These guards were intended to provide security to worshippers, but instead they routinely prevent Palestinians access to the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and routinely intimidate worshippers.

CHAPTER THREE ATTACKS ON MASJID AL-AQSA SINCE 1967

In 1990, there was an attempt by the ‘Temple Mount Faithful’ to lay a cornerstone for the Third Temple within the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. On 8 October, Israeli soldiers killed as many as 22 Palestinians and injured more than 100 others during the protests that followed the group’s provocations. It was later ruled by Israeli judge Ezra Kama that the

Israeli police, not the Palestinians, provoked the violence. The United Nations also condemned Israel for the violence and carnage. During the 1990’s there was further unrest and in December 1997, Jewish extremists also attempted to toss a pig’s head into the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.

On 28 September 2000, the outbreak of the Second Palestinian Intifada was sparked by the deliber-ately provocative intrusion into the al-Aqsa Sanctuary by Ariel Sharon. Sharon was flanked by hundreds of Israeli police and entered the Sanctuary in a bid to ‘underscore Jewish rights’. The move was a direct challenge to the Sanctuary and its sanctity and also a message from Sharon that he would never compro-mise on Jerusalem. Large-scale violence broke out across the West Bank and Gaza with Palestinians also protesting against the Israeli occupa-tion. It is estimated that around 5,500 Palestinians died during the Second Intifada. During this period, Israel employed extra-judicial assas-sinations against Palestinians result-ing in the deaths of hundreds of civilians. Palestinian leaders were

also imprisoned and the construction of the Separation Wall also began.58

UN Security Council Resolution 1322 of 7 October 2000 condemned acts of violence, especially the exces-sive use of force by Israel against the Palestinians.59 The World Bank estimated that by the end of 2001, half of the Palestinian population was living in poverty with increas-ing deterioration in the economic situation.60 Following the al-Aqsa Intifada, the restrictions placed on Muslim worshippers to enter the al-Aqsa Sanctuary intensified, becoming more wide-ranging and frequent. Palestinian men, especially those between the ages of 18 to 45 faced blanket bans from praying at the Holy Sanctuary at certain times. This practice continues today.

Temple Mount Faithful

Al-Aqsa Intifada


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In 2004, the Israeli Public Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi admitted that hard-line Jewish groups may be planning to carry out attacks on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. This was backed up by Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence services, who said that there was a possibility that Jewish hardliners were trying to destroy Masjid al-Aqsa by crashing a radio-controlled plane into it.61 Israeli press noted that many of these attempts constituted efforts to derail plans to uproot settlers from the Gaza Strip. A Jewish rabbi allied with the Temple Movement, Gali Tsahal is also reported as saying that he fully supported the destruc-tion of Masjid al-Aqsa. The Muslim scholars of East Jerusalem Shaikh Ikrama Sabri reported to al-Jazeera that Israel may be attempting to gain a foothold in the Sanctuary under the

pretext of ‘ensuring the security of the place.’62

In 2005, an organisation named ‘Revava’ announced plans to bring 10,000 Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. David Ha’ivri, chairman of Revava, told a news organisation that ‘The Muslims must understand that their rule over our holy place has come to an end and that the Jewish people will exercise our religious rights on the Temple Mount.’63 Revava is linked to the right-wing Kach group and states that it is dedicated to rebuilding the Jewish Third Temple. The group openly stated that its objective was to storm the Sanctuary so that Israeli troops evacuating 8,000 settlers from Gaza would be forced to leave that task and go to Jerusalem instead.64

In 2007, Israeli bulldozers began digging outside al-Aqsa’s Moroccan Gate (Bab Al-Maghribi) claiming that they were simply repairing an old ramp leading up to Masjid al-Aqsa. Muslim officials, however, were deeply concerned about the digging and feared that it was part of overarching Israeli plans to facilitate easier military access to the Masjid.65 In the following days, Israeli forces prevented Muslims from entering the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary to attend the prayers and protest against the provocative excavations. Several protesters were injured after Israeli police fired tear gas and stun grenades. These actions undermined any official claims being made about the repairs to the old ramp.

The end of 2009 also saw the rise of tensions surrounding the al-Aqsa Sanctuary after an Israeli funda-

mentalist group named the ‘Defence of Human Rights on the Temple Mount’ called on Jews to enter the al-Aqsa Sanctuary during October. Palestinians who gathered to protect the Masjid were attacked by Israeli police, dozens were injured and many civilians were arrested.66 In the following month, Israel enforced severe restrictions on Palestinians entering the Masjid - preventing all men under the age of 50 from taking part in Friday Jum’a prayers. The battle for Jerusalem was particularly pronounced due to the growing presence of extremist Jewish settlers occupying the homes of evicted Palestinians in Jerusalem.

In March 2010, Israeli forces raided the al-Aqsa Sanctuary follow-ing Friday prayers; firing tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades.67 Dozens of Palestinians

Gaza Disengagement

Recent Attacks

20


were injured after approximately 100 police officers clashed with the worshippers at the holy site. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights condemned the breach, stating that it had been provoked by hundreds of Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli security forces, entering the compound. It also denounced the ‘use of excessive force’ by Israeli personnel against Palestinians who had attempted to stop the ‘provoca-tive entry of settlers into the Masjid.’68 The secretary-general of the Organi-zation of the Islamic Conference criticized Israeli action stating that it was ‘a sacrilegious act of profanation of the holy Islamic site.’ Ihsanoglu also argues that police action was ‘a violation of international law and a flagrant attack on the freedom of religion of the nature that could take the region into a war between religions.’69

Clashes over the al-Aqsa Sanctuary were also provoked by an announcement to include the Ibrahimi and Bilal Masajid - both in the occupied West Bank- on a list of sites of Israeli heritage. Muslims and Palestinians were urged to protect the al-Aqsa Sanctuary from similar claims and attempts by extremists Jews planning to lay a cornerstone at the Temple Mount. More than 3,000 Israeli police were deployed in Jerusalem and severe restrictions were placed on those entering the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.

Over recent years we have witnessed a marked increase in the number of instances in which the sanctity of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary has been violated. This highlights how trespassing on al-Aqsa Sanctuary has become an accepted phenomenon in mainstream Israeli society. Provoca-tive invasions and trespasses on the holy site are intended to undermine Palestinian ownership of the site, and their religious rights and freedoms. These trespasses are carried out by individuals and organisations who act safe in the knowledge that they will be protected by Israeli guards

during the trespass, nor will they be held to account for their actions by the Israeli authorities or the inter-national community. The identities of the Israelis storming the al-Aqsa Sanctuary is diverse and includes settlers, tourists, soldiers, Israeli politicians and Knesset members. A study conducted by Al-Aqsa Founda-tion for Endowment and Heritage in Israel has revealed that Masjid al-Aqsa and its surrounding area has been subjected to attacks and viola-tions by approximately 5000 Zionists in 2011 alone.70 The number of attacks significantly increased in 2012 with nearly 11,000 Zionists storming the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.71 In 2013, the trespasses have been occurring on an almost daily basis. Furthermore, Palestinian students who undertake classes within the grounds of the sanctuary have been denied access.

The attacks have varied between physical attacks and plots and plans which threaten the security of the Masjid; to provocative statements constituting incitement by Israelis to destroy the third holiest site in the Muslim world. The intruders have performed Talmudic rituals, sometimes in public, other times in secret, including carrying religious articles inside the Masjid. On 28 May 2012, a group of around 160 Israeli occupation soldiers hoisted a three-metre long Israeli flag inside the holy al-Aqsa Masjid. Despite demands that the flag be removed, soldiers failed to take it down.72

Directly outside of the walls of al-Aqsa Sanctuary, Israeli efforts to Judaise the area have intensi-fied with the intention of creating a fabricated Jewish Israeli history in the area. Many historic buildings and infrastructures have been deliberately destroyed thus removing evidences of centuries old Palestinian history and heritage. Millions of Israelis and foreign tourists visit the al-Buraq Wall every year73 and a new history is being invented; an example of this is the removal of Arab street names, including Salah ad-Deen Street,


21

and the replacement of them with Hebrew names.

The military presence in the area has increased dramatically and Palestinian worshippers are routinely prevented from entering the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. Measures such as banning orders and limitations on the ages of those who may enter the area have resulted in an exponential decrease in the number of worshippers able to enter the holy site.

Israeli Occupation Authorities have also prevented many millions of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from reaching Occupied Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Sanctuary further reducing the number of people able to visit this place of immense religious significance. Those that are fortunate enough to visit the al-Aqsa Sanctuary are often subject to harass-ment from occupying Israeli forces.

The increase in the number

of violations against the al-Aqsa Sanctuary comes amid an increase in mainstream Israeli discourse advocating the total destruction of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. Many promi-nent Israeli politicians have regularly and frequently called for the destruc-tion of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and advocated the building of the Third Temple on its site.

Moshe Feiglin has for many years spoken openly of his desire and the Israeli need, to build the Third Temple on the site of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. In the 2013 Israeli Knesset elections, Feiglin stood as a candidate for the ruling Likud Party and was elected as a Member of Parliament. On several occasions, Feiglin has acted in an offensive and provocative manner by trespassing on the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary and denying Palestinians access while he himself offered prayers there. He has been able to act with impunity and is always accompanied by a heavy security escort protecting him on each of his visits.

Moshe Feiglin co-founded the

Zo Artzeinu (‘This [is] our Land/Country’) movement with Shmuel Sackett in 1993 to protest against the Oslo Accords; he shares the views of other Israeli extremists who do not believe in the peace process and want to occupy all the Palestinian lands. Feiglin is banned from entering the United Kingdom due to a decision by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, made public in March 2008, exclud-ing Feiglin on the grounds that his presence in the country ‘would not be conducive to the public good’. A letter to Feiglin from the Home Office said that Smith justified her decision as his activities ‘foment or justify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs; seek to provoke others to terrorist acts; foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts and foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK’.

In 2012, Feiglin gave a speech as the keynote speaker for an event organised by the Temple Institute. The activities of the Temple Insti-tute give rise to grave concern as they directly threaten the safety and preservation of the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary. The Temple Institute have openly stated that they have plans in place to achieve their goal of destroying the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. In his keynote speech for the Temple Institute, Feiglin advocated the building of a temple on the existing site of the al-Aqsa complex calling for a ‘revolu-tion’ to take place as the building of a Temple is the ‘only reason for our (Jewish) existence’.

Aside from Feiglin, there are

currently many other Israeli politi-cians who have expressed their desire to see the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary destroyed. In a speech given in Florida, candidate for the 2013 Knesset elections Jeremy Gimpel, remarked that it would be a wonder-ful thing to see the al-Aqsa Sanctuary blown up.74 Jeremy Gimpel’s views no longer occupy the fringes of Israeli public opinion.

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His party, Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home), founded by the extremist settler movement, won 12 seats in the 2013 Knesset elections; this amounts to 10% of total seats, making the party an influential voice in the Israeli Parliament. One member of Jewish Home who won a seat in the 2013 Knesset elections was Uri Ariel. During the Sukkot festival in 2006, Ariel said he was preparing a plan to build a synagogue on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.

Israeli politics has moved so far to the Right that some commenta-tors have noted that there is no ‘Left’ remaining. With the election of individuals such as Moshe Feiglin and Uri Ariel to the Knesset, it is apparent that not only have calls for the destruction of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary become accepted in mainstream Israeli society but that those advocating the destruction of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary are legiti-mised by the Israeli Knesset and are now in a powerful position to carry out their desired aims. Aside from policies which push for the further oppression, marginalisation and destruction of the Palestinians in the occupied territories, there are now voices in mainstream Israeli politics which routinely and frequently call for the destruction of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. It is for this reason that when the Sanctuary is trespassed upon on a daily basis, there is no action taken against the perpetrators. These perpetrators have been given the confidence and belief that they are not breaking any laws and they have nothing to fear from the Israeli authorities who will not stop them nor press any charges against them.

One such example occurred in January 2013, when the Israeli Foreign Ministry produced a film called ‘The Fact About Jerusalem’. The film showed Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, filmed speaking in various areas of Jerusalem, including in front of the Dome of the Rock within the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. In the film, the Dome of

the Rock disappears and is replaced by an image of a Jewish temple. The production of this video highlights the very real and present danger the al-Aqsa Sanctuary faces from Israelis who are focused on destroying it.

Israeli action in occupied East Jerusalem appear to reflect an orches-trated campaign to change facts on the ground in a calculated and methodical manner, with the ultimate aim of creating the conditions required for the building of the Third Temple on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.

The tunnelling and excavations carried out beneath the al-Aqsa Sanctuary has undermined the struc-tural integrity of many of its buildings. Reports of the ground caving in near the al-Aqsa Masjid and in occupied East Jerusalem have been made repeatedly. In December 2010, Col. Yoram Lev-Ran, the Commander of the Jerusalem district of the Home Front Command, ominously told an Israeli weekly75 that a disaster might befall the holy al-Aqsa Masjid and that the old Marwani Mosque might collapse soon. He emphasised that it was a question of ‘when’ and not ‘if ’. Any possibility of restoration works has been blocked by Israel, despite numerous Arab countries offering to fund and carry out the works. Instead, Israel is focused on a campaign of excavations and the construction of long, interlinked tunnels underneath al-Aqsa and the surrounding area in all directions. The tunnels are to have ‘Jewish synagogues and Judaisation centres’. What has been notable about the excavations since 2011 is that they have been more overt, unlike in previous years, which is reflective of how talk of destroying the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and the Islamic heritage of occupied Jerusalem has moved firmly to the Israeli mainstream.

In February 2013, Israel carried out the wholesale demolition of Islamic buildings in the northern side of al-Buraq Square. Israeli bulldoz-ers demolished historic arches and facades of Islamic buildings dating



23

back to the Mamluk and Ottoman eras on the north side of al-Buraq Square. The site lies just 50 metres from the Noble al-Aqsa Sanctuary.

Dr. Jamal Amro, an expert special-ising in Jerusalem, the holy sites and settlements; has said that the demoli-tion of Islamic buildings in al-Buraq Square constitutes the sixth and final stage of the occupation scheme to build the alleged Temple on the ruins of Masjid al-Aqsa.76

The first phase, according to Amro, ended with seizing control over all underground tunnels inside the Old City and under the al-Aqsa Masjid.

The second phase was the build-ing of 61 synagogues in the vicinity of the al-Aqsa Masjid over a large area of land, while preparations are underway for the construction of the 62nd synagogue, which will be the largest one in the world, adjacent to the al-Aqsa Masjid in the west side, in a bid to obliterate the Arab and Islamic history in the area.

The third phase was represented in seizing Islamic properties from the Umayyad and Abbasid eras, while the fourth phase included setting up a golden chandelier, weighing 45

kilograms, in the area overlooking the al-Buraq Square from the west.

The fifth stage, Amro has said, ‘was represented in the completion of the executive schemes for build-ing models of the Temple’, stressing that this stage is extremely serious, because it aims to grant the occupa-tion the necessary political, legal and legitimate cover for the implementa-tion of the construction that repre-sents the sixth stage. In this respect, the activities of organisations such as the Temple Institute are of immense significance as they promote the creation of the Third Temple so that it becomes not only accepted but also expected within mainstream Israeli society.

It is thus clearly apparent that the danger presented to the al-Aqsa Sanctuary is very real and present. Over the past few years, we have witnessed a clear and marked increase in the attacks upon the al-Aqsa Sanctuary which have come about as talk of destroying the al-Aqsa Sanctuary has become more vocifer-ous in Israeli society. If allowed to succeed, this will devastate Palestin-ian religious and cultural heritage in the Old City of Jerusalem, and amount to a war crime.

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Chapter Four: Tunnelling under al-Aqsa and Excavations

Since the war of 1967, Israel has been digging, tunnelling and carrying out controversial excavations around and beneath the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. These invasive Israeli actions have undermined the structural integrity of buildings within the al-Aqsa

Sanctuary and large cracks have appeared in some walls and parts of the ground have also caved in. The digging shows a deliberate disregard for the Palestinian ownership of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and the structural integrity of the buildings upon it.

Within days of occupying East Jerusalem in 1967, Israeli archae-ologists and engineers began digging around the al-Aqsa Sanctuary in order to expose additional portions of the Western Wall. In 1970, Israeli occupation authorities began intensive excavation works directly

beneath al-Aqsa Masjid on the south-ern and western sides and in 1977, digging continued and a large tunnel was opened beneath the women’s prayer area. In 1979, a new tunnel was dug under the Masjid, going from east to west.77

Digging and Excavations after 1967


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The network of tunnels continued to expand and on 29 March 1984, the Archaeological Department of the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs dug a tunnel, one metre in height, two metres in width and 10 metres deep near the western part of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. This endan-gered and destabalised the Islamic ‘Majlis’ or council building.78 Sheikh Ikrama Sabri the Mufti of Jerusalem remarked that these excavations:

Another concern with regards to excavations is that significant Islamic sites and other sacred religious sites elsewhere are likely to be destroyed. ‘Such anxiety was based upon a widespread conception of Israeli archaeology within the

Palestinian community as tending to systematically erase evidence of other (non-Jewish) heritages in the country’s history in efforts to legiti-mise Jewish presence in this land.’80 There are also concerns as bulldozers have been used during digs, instead of customary methods in archaeo-logical digs which respect the need to preserve evidences within the ground at every level of exploration. The bulldozers have been used to

remove layers of earth which would provide historic evidences relating to the Islamic eras and thus many vestiges have been either destroyed completely, or ignored if they did not support the Israeli agenda.

“led to the collapse of the stairs leading to the Waqf offices at the Majlis Gate and in 1988 to the collapse of the corridor leading to the Ghawanmeh Minaret. The Islamic Waqf does not have detailed information on the excavations, because the Israeli occupation authorities have barred access to Waqf engineers. We can, however, say for sure that exposing the foundations of the Haram al-Sharif by digging up the ground around it will place the Aqsa Masjid and other buildings in grave danger. In other words, the Aqsa Masjid is constantly threatened one way or another.”79

In September 1996, Israeli occupation authorities opened a large tunnel (around 500 metres in length) beneath the al-Aqsa Sanctuary, spark-ing bloody clashes with Palestinians who protested against the digging. Fifty seven Palestinians were killed. According to various commentators, the excavations under the al-Aqsa Sanctuary are leading to dangerous cracks in the buildings adjoining the Western Wall. Archaeologists believe that the tunnels have weakened the structures of the buildings within the compound, so that even the slightest earth tremor could lead to a collapse of the Masjid.81

During early excavations, engineers detected a slight movement

in part of the southern Wall and concrete buttresses were put in place to support the Wall. Midway through the digging of the tunnel, large cracks appeared in one of the residential buildings in the Muslim Quarter which was 12 metres above the level of the excavation. Once again, digging had to be halted until the building was secured.82 As Nadia Abu El-Haj states, ‘the Palestinian community had opposed this tunnel-ling operation not only because of its proximity to the Haram al-Sharif, but, quite crucially, because it was undermining the structural founda-tions of homes above it.’83 El-Haj also revealed that the involvement of settler groups in the training of guides for the tunnel also illustrates the close

The Western Wall Tunnel in 1996

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CHAPTER FOUR TUNNELLING UNDER AL-AQSA AND EXCAVATIONS

affiliations that exist between radical settler movements and the adminis-tration of the Western Wall Tunnel.84

The tunnel was in existence for some time and visitors would walk inside, and then make a U-turn and walk back out. The Israeli authori-ties wanted a way of opening an exit at the northern end of the narrow tunnel and a staircase was built from the tunnel up onto the

Via Dolorosa, bringing the visitors- mainly Israeli- into the heart of the Muslim Quarter.85 The archaeologist overseeing the dig, Meir Ben-Dov remarked: ‘I think that opening the tunnel exit was very unwise.’86 In sum, Israel’s excavations around the al-Aqsa Sanctuary are a direct threat to the foundation of the buildings upon it thus placing them at a risk of collapse.87

In 2007, Israel began renovations of the Maghrebi gate pathway which is not only adjacent to the Western Wall but is also one of the main access points to the al-Aqsa Sanctuary by non-Muslims.88 The Israeli Antiqui-ties Authority also announced that they would be searching for artefacts at the base of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary as part of a detailed archaeologi-cal exploration before replacing the ramp.89 This move was met with fierce criticism from across the Muslim world. Palestinian newspa-pers condemned Israel’s excavation work as an attempt to remove Pales-tinian heritage from Jerusalem and Judaise the city.90 Many commenta-tors felt that this was an attempt by Israel to extend the prayer area of the Western Wall even if it meant the destruction of up to 1400 years of Islamic history. Adnan Husseini, a former head of Waqf in Jerusalem remarked: ‘This is an entrance to our Masjids, and it [the ramp as well as the archaeological remains] is Awqaf property.’91

King Abdullah of Jordan called the Israeli move a ‘blatant viola-tion that is not acceptable under any pretext’ whilst Morocco’s King Mohammed urged an end to the work which ‘is aimed at distorting the hallmarks and symbols of Islam and civilisation.’92 Prominent archae-ologists from Israel also wrote a

critical letter to the Israeli Antiquities Authority condemning the illegality and the lack of transparency of the project.93 Furthermore, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) raised concerns over the scheme as the work was undertaken without referral to the specialised bodies responsible for the preservation of these heritage sites and without prior consultation of UNESCO.94 A state-ment to UNESCO read:

UNESCO commissioned a team to assess and report on the Israeli excavation work and while acknowl-edging the professionalism of the IAA, it nonetheless called on Israel to halt excavations and approve plans

“The League of Arab States has issued a statement concerning the Israeli actions against al-Aqsa Masjid in which it warned of the consequences of a continuation of the flagrant Israeli violation against one of the holiest Islamic sites in Jerusalem, and stressed the illegal, illegitimate nature of those repeated actions, which are aimed at the annexing of Jerusalem and altering its geographical, demographic and archaeological characteristics.”95

The Maghrebi Gate Ascent


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for restorations with the agreement of the Waqf Administration and Jordanian government.96 Turkey also sent a technical mission to examine the site and wrote a highly critical

report on the situation.97 Plans for the ramp nevertheless went ahead with some modifications.

In July 2009, it was reported that twenty tunnels were being dug under the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. Some were open to tourists whilst others were still under construction. Executive director of the International Al-Quds Foundation, Ziyad Al-Hassan, reported that the tunnels were part of an Israeli scheme to establish a Jewish tourist city under the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.99 One year earlier, it had been reported by the Israeli human rights organisation ‘Israeli Commit-tee Against House Demolitions’; that Jewish settler groups were digging an extensive tunnel network under

Muslim areas of Jerusalem’s Old City. They also warned that these settler tunnels could one day extend under the al-Aqsa Masjid.100

An Israeli lawyer and member of the anti-settlement group Ir Amin noted: ‘The intention is clear, to be able to enter the Old City from the Northern Wall (under the Damascus Gate), traverse the Old City without encountering a single Palestinian, emerge at the Western Wall, saunter across the plaza, re-enter the burrow and exit at Silwan’.101 It was also remarked that messianic extremists

View of excavations under ramp leading up to Maghrebi Gate - 12 June 2008. Source: Marian Houk98

Recent Developments

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CHAPTER FOUR TUNNELLING UNDER AL-AQSA AND EXCAVATIONS

could use the tunnels to attack Masjid al-Aqsa. Local Palestinian residents in occupied East Jerusalem also reported hearing tunnelling at night, and were concerned as the digging was near the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.102

As well as various reports of digging in the Palestinian neighbor-hood of Silwan during 2008,103 the al-Aqsa association for the Waqf and heritage disclosed in September 2009 that Israeli occupation authorities were digging another tunnel. ‘Israeli authorities and the ‘El’ad’ settlement association [have] undertaken efforts to complete this tunnel as soon as possible so that it can be linked with other tunnels under Silwan village near the al-Aqsa Masjid.’104

In April 2010, the Palestinian Judge of Jerusalem Sheikh Moham-med Abu Senena reported that Masjid al-Aqsa was threatened with collapse due to Israeli tunnels under the structure. It was also reported that Israel was attempting to wipe out the Islamic and Christian heritage within the holy city by demolishing Pales-tinian homes, desecrating religious sanctuaries and building new Jewish settlements.105 At the end of December 2010, the Secretary of the Organisation of the Islamic Confer-ence (OIC) called on UNESCO to set up a committee of experts to assess the safety of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.106


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Excavations go down 15 meters, all the way to the foundation stones of the Western Wall

The other 1591 feet of the wall runs underground, underneath Jerusalems Muslim Quarter with the concrete pillars supporting the residential streets above the tunnel

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Chapter Five: Judaising Jerusalem and impact on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary

Since the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, measures have been carried out to radically transform the physical and demographic landscape of Jerusalem to incorporate the Zionist vision of a united, and funda-mentally Jewish Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty. This Judaisation

of Jerusalem occurred not only during times of war, but also under times of peace through the expansion of settlements, the disenfranchise-ment of Jerusalem residents, home demolitions, bureaucratic restrictions and the separation Wall.107

As soon as Palestine came under the British mandate in 1922, Jerusa-lem’s demographics were altered by waves of Jewish immigration. In fact the United Nations estimated that by 1947 the population of Jews and Arabs had reached parity in Jerusa-lem at around 100,000 people.108 With the declaration of the state of Israel, land owned by Palestinians in Jerusalem was appropriated by the government of Israel and transferred to the administration of the Israel Land Authority.

In the coming years, Israeli law was extended to East Jerusalem and

the city’s boundaries were expanded to include an additional 64 sq. km of Palestinian land in the West Bank after the war in 1967.109 This expan-sion was carried out by the guiding principle of Zionist colonisation and ‘boundaries were judiciously mapped by Israeli generals to exclude Palestinian population centres such as Abu Dis and al-Ram while incor-porating sparsely inhabited agricul-tural lands.’110 The empty land was earmarked for future settlements so that the Jewish population would outnumber the Palestinians within Jerusalem’s boundaries.

Historical Roots of Judaisation of Jerusalem


31

The international community declared the annexation of Palestin-ian land in East Jerusalem as void and on 3 July 1969, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 267 which stated that ‘all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel which purport to alter the status of Jerusalem, including expropriation of land and properties thereon’ are invalid.

Israel simply ignored these condemnations and passed the

‘Absentee Property Law’ which was used to strip the Arabs of East Jerusalem of their homes. Palestin-ians who were away, either at work or had fled from the fighting, were stripped of their land and their citizenship rights to live in Jerusa-lem. These policies, amongst others, displaced over 100,000 Palestinians and resulted in the expropriation of around one-third of land annexed to Jerusalem in 1967.111

For the last 14 centuries, Jerusalem has been under continuous Arab and Islamic presence apart from the short Crusader era yet the Israeli authori-ties are keen to promote a vision of the city as one predominately Jewish in character. As the renowned scholar Edward Said remarked in 1995, Israel was able to ‘project an idea of Jerusalem that contradicted not only [the city’s] history but it’s very lived actuality, turning it from a multicultural and multi-religious city into an ‘eternally’ unified, principally Jewish city under exclusive Israeli sovereignty.’112

This vision was carried out through various policies whose aims were two-fold: to ‘rapidly increase the Jewish population through the devel-opments of Jewish-only settlements and building incentives, and inhibit the growth of the Arab population through a wide array of legal, admin-istrative and bureaucratic restrictions, ultimately forcing the residents to move elsewhere.’113

Since the annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Palestinian Jerusalemites received a blue identity card which is subject to annual renewal. This means that they must

go through a ‘lengthy, cumbersome and at times humiliating process’ to renew their ID card or face being arrested for illegal entry into Israel.114 Israel also enforced a ‘center of life’ policy in which Jerusalemites found working or living outside Jerusalem were stripped of their blue ID cards. Such policies, labelled as ‘quiet deportation’ resulted in Palestinian Jerusalemites being slowly banished from the holy city. In 2006 alone, 1,363 Palestinians were stripped of the right to live in Jerusalem.115 Israel has undertaken a deliberate strategy to rid Jerusalem of its Palestinian inhabitants over the past four and a half decades. This deliberate orches-tration changes the ‘facts on the ground’ which will later enable Israel to claim East-Jerusalem has a small Palestinian minority and therefore rightly belongs to the Israeli major-ity, regardless of the illegality of the Israeli presence there.

Further policies which support this overall malicious intent include restrictions on planning permission for the building of homes in Arab neighbourhoods. The state of Israel did not commission a single housing unit to be built for Palestinians while it has commissioned nearly 60,000

Creating a Jewish Jerusalem: Planning policies, home demolitions and ID cards

32

housing units for Jewish settlements in the first three decades following 1967. Planning costs are extremely prohibitive for Palestinians meaning that many Palestinians are forced to build without permits and face the risk of fines and home demoli-tions. The Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions reports that even for those with the financial means it is not uncommon to wait 5-7 years for an application to be approved (or more readily, declined), and in

the Old City of Jerusalem no new construction is permitted outside the Jewish Quarter.116 In addition to these restrictions, Israel has carried out approximately 2,000 home demolitions in East Jerusalem since 1967. According to official statistics, from 2000 to 2008 the Israeli authori-ties demolished more than 670 East Jerusalem homes. The number of outstanding demolition orders is estimated at up to 20,000.

CHAPTER FIVE JUDAISING JERUSALEM AND IMPACT ON THE AL-AQSA SANCTUARY

Year East Jerusalem - Demolitions by the Jerusalem Municipality

East Jerusalem - Demolitions by the Interior Ministry

Total

1999 17 14 31

2000 9 7 16

2001 32 9 41

2002 36 9 45

2003 66 33 99

2004 115 18 133

2005 76 14 90

2006 71 10 81

2007 69 6 75

2008 71* 7 78

2009 65 3 68

2010 53 3 56

2011 60 4 64

2012 49 2 51

Total 789 139 928

Total and partial demolition of houses and other structures, 1999-2008, official data:

According to B’Tselem:


33

Year No. of Palestinians whose residency was revoked

2011 1012010 1912009 7252008 4,577

2007 289

2006 1,363

2005 222

2004 16

2003 272

2002 No Data

Till end of April 2001

15

2000 207

1999 411

1998 788

1997 1,067

1996 739

1995 91

1994 45

1993 32

1992 41

1991 20

1990 36

1989 32

Year No. of Palestinians whose residency was revoked

1988 21987 23

1986 84

1985 99

1984 161

1983 616

1982 74

1981 51

1980 158

1979 91

1978 36

1977 35

1976 42

1975 54

1974 45

1973 77

1972 93

1971 126

1970 327

1969 178

1968 395

1967 105

Total 14,152

The Israeli government has long implemented a policy which encour-ages the strategic growth of Jewish settlements surrounding Jerusa-lem. In March 2010 Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu approved the construction of 1,600 Jewish homes in the Arab neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. Furthermore, according

to estimates from the EU in 2006, the population of settlers in East Jerusa-lem is expected to account for half the settler population of the West Bank.117 The growth of the settle-ments is a clear move to increase Israeli control and influence over Jerusalem and also to bolster claims of a predominantly Jewish Jerusalem.

Statistics on Revocation of Residency Rights

Settlements and the Separation Wall

B’Tselem

34

As Valerie Zink explains: ‘By tipping the demographic scales in their favour and altering the physical landscape to reflect a Jewish identity and charac-ter, the settlements serve to actualize what was previously only myth.’118

In 1995, the Israeli government adopted the ‘Greater Jerusalem Master Plan’ which incorporates the burgeoning ring of settlements which surround East Jerusalem into its municipal boundaries. As such ‘Greater Jerusalem’ includes not only the Gilo, French Hill and Har Homa settlements which are within its boundaries but also Givat Ze’ev, Ma’ale Adumim and Gush Etzion.119 ‘The Old City is increasingly encir-cled by Jewish-only neighbourhoods and only a few poor Arab enclaves. Jewish settlers are also moving into the old city’s Islamic quarter and into Palestinian neighbourhoods, backed by court eviction orders for the residents that are enforced by the police.’120

The Separation Wall that Israel has built around the West Bank also plays an important role in the Judaisation of Jerusalem. Daoud Hamoudi of Stop the Wall explains that the Wall ‘annexes the settlement blocs into Jerusalem and isolates the

Palestinian neighbourhoods- and you are talking about almost half the population of Jerusalem, around 120,000.’121 Many Palestinian neigh-bourhoods which were previously part of Jerusalem now have to cross the Wall to enter Jerusalem, totally severing their connection to the holy city. This is the ultimate outcome of the Wall which, John Dugard the UN Special Rapporteur states, serves as ‘an instrument of social engineering designed to achieve the Judaisation of Jerusalem.’122

The true cost of this Judiasation is that Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim, are being pushed out and their link to Jerusalem cut off whilst Israel strengthens its own place in the city. The biggest loss to Palestinian Muslims is that their right to visit the al-Aqsa Sanctuary has been radically undermined. Those wishing to visit the holy site are now totally at the mercy of Israeli security forces and at times of crisis (when Palestinians feel the need to protect the site) or at special occasions such as Eid and Ramadan, Israel has been known to place harsh restrictions blocking Muslims from worshipping within the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.

CHAPTER FIVE JUDAISING JERUSALEM AND IMPACT ON THE AL-AQSA SANCTUARY

Since the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, Palestinians have faced a growing number of restric-tions on their movement into Jerusa-lem. In the wake of the first Intifada, Israel imposed a closure on the city of Jerusalem which later became standard policy. Now each time an incident occurs or there are Jewish celebrations in the holy city, Palestin-ians are denied entry into the city and into the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. This is a direct violation of the religious rights of Muslim Palestinians and their right to worship in the Masjid. For example in September to October

2009, restrictions were placed on entry to the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and all Palestinian men under the age of 50 were denied access. Similarly, after the celebration of the Jewish Passover in March 2010 Israeli forces imposed restrictions on Palestinians entering the al-Aqsa Sanctuary - altogether banning men under the age of 50.123

Moreover, as the West Bank has been effectively cut off from Jerusalem through the multiple Israeli-controlled checkpoints, those without Jerusalem ID’s have to apply for permits to visit their holy city.

Restricted Access to al-Aqsa Sanctuary


35

‘Obtaining a permit is a lengthy, humiliating, and arbitrary process, which requires the submission of considerable personal documents. There are no clear procedures and criteria for receiving permits, and there is no requirement to state reasons for denying one, nor is there any avenue of appeal for Palestin-ians denied permits.’124 Furthermore, Israel’s response to the al-Aqsa Intifada was to impose even more restrictions on Muslims wanting to pray in the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. During Friday Jum’a prayers in particular, there would be restrictions on entry into Jerusalem and also on Palestin-ians entering the Old City to pray at Masjid al-Aqsa.

Whilst Israel has attempted to justify these restrictions on the basis of security, the rationale is seriously flawed as ‘it is uniformly applied to all Palestinians, closure affects everyone except probably those that are skilled and determined enough to breach it. The manner in which closure is

pursued indicates that the policy rather serves economic and political considerations.’125 This ‘Matrix of Control’ through checkpoints, ID cards, the Separation Wall, planning policies and home demolition means that Palestinians are being forced out of Jerusalem with little hope for return. As well as cutting themselves off from the city, many now face a myriad of Israeli restrictions if they wish to pray at the al-Aqsa Sanctuary although this is a religious right.

There are already millions of Muslim Palestinians who have grown up without ever visiting the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. This is a violation of their religious, cultural and citizenship rights. East Jerusalem is Palestinian land and belongs to the Palestinian people. Israel’s annexation of the city is illegal and despite unashamed attempts to change the facts on the ground, these efforts must be resisted and the rule of international law upheld.

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Chapter Six: Al-Aqsa in the Zionist Vision

Bernard Wasserstein of Divided Jerusalem: The Struggle for the Holy City, states that early Zionists tended to eschew religious traditions and generally avoided attributing any special importance to Jerusalem. Theodor Herzl, the founder of politi-cal Zionism, was shocked by what he perceived as the city’s filth and stench and when socialist Zionists began to arrive in Palestine after 1904 they looked down on Jerusalem for its religiosity.126 In fact, during the first influx of Zionists to Palestine in 1880, very few settled in Jerusalem. ‘Far from viewing Jerusalem with affection, they despised it and all it stood for, particularly the tradi-tional dependence of Jews there on halukah (charitable dole)’.127 David Ben Gurion who went on to declare Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel in 1950 did not visit the city until three years after arriving in Palestine.

Many of the early Zionists viewed the notion of rebuilding the temple more as a metaphor for the creation of the state of Israel. ‘The emblem of Israel - the menorah from Titus’ arch flanked by two olive branches - derives directly from Zechariah’s vision of the restora-tion of the temple, ‘driving home the Zionist movement’s revolution-ary message that the State of Israel constituted the ‘Third Temple’.’128 The notions of restoring the Temple were not unheard of during this time although they were not clearly defined. In 1918, Chaim Weizmann of the Zionist Organization wrote that Jews went to the Wall to ‘bewail the destruction of the Temple and to pray for its restoration.’129 During the conflict over the Western Wall in 1928-9, it was reported that ‘even the more moderate Hebrew press in Jerusalem uttered anew the ‘symbolic’ references to rebuilding the ancient Temple’.130

Early Zionism and Jerusalem


37

Religious Jews continued to settle in Jerusalem motivated by their faith but had no interest in or sympathy for the Jewish nationalism imbued in Zionist thought.131 As such, there was a clear divide at this time between how Zionists perceived Jerusalem and the views of religious Jews with regards to Jerusalem. This division is illustrated by the Zionist response to the Royal Commission partition plan for Palestine in 1937:

Another reason for the Zionist reluctance to acknowledge the impor-tance of Jerusalem may have related to the fact that the Muslims and Christians held it in such high regard. There was little chance of being able to include it in a Jewish state and so the suggestion that it be partitioned may have been accepted as one possible way of gaining a foothold in the Holy City. It was also feared that

any demands for sovereignty over Jerusalem would jeopardise interna-tional support for the creation of a Jewish state.133 As David Ben Gurion reflected it was ‘the price paid for statehood’.134

To summarise, whilst Jerusalem may not have featured highly on the Zionists agenda this cannot be automatically seen as an indication of the city’s insignificance to them.

Rather, it seemed to have been a strate-gic move to avoid any diplomatic tensions whilst creating the state of Israel. It also reflected divisions of the ‘old yishuv’ and the ‘new yishuv’ and the principles on which the state would be formed. However, follow-ing the formation of the state after the war in 1948 and particularly the conflict in 1967, Israeli inten-tions would become a lot clearer.

“The Zionist response to the idea of a Zionist state without Zion [Jerusalem] was curiously complaisant. Their general view of the holy city has always had an undercurrent of hostility- particularly strong in the case of the dominant, secularizing socialist-Zionist movement. They saw Jerusalem as the fortress of the ‘old yishuv’ [religious Jews living in Palestine before 1880’s], symbol of all that it stood for by way of conservatism, unproductiveness and anti-Zionism. Tel Aviv was the real capital of Zionism until the foundation of the state of Israel- and, in all but name, for some time thereafter.”132

Since the destruction of the Second Temple, a desire for recon-struction has been inevitable. This is now even reflected in Jewish prayer services where a prayer for the construction of a Third Temple is included. Whilst orthodox authori-ties maintain that the rebuilding of the Temple will occur following the return of the Messiah, others have incorporated this with other Zionist aims. Religious Zionism - which

appears to have been led by the visions of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook (1865-1935) - declared that the re-establishment of the Temple was a key Zionist objective.135

According to Rabbi Kook, this was part of a process aimed at the national revival of the Jewish people and he set up a school which taught the regulation of worship in the Temple.136 Rabbi Kook, however, was

Divisions about the Status of Jerusalem

A New Movement: Religious Zionism

38

clear that entry to the Temple Mount was forbidden to all Jews. Nonethe-less, religious Zionists who actively supported the migration of Jews to Israel and saw the creation of the State of Israel as a step to redemption believed that this redemption would ‘culminate in the rebuilding of the temple...’137 Members of the terrorist Stern Gang (also known as the Lechi Movement) discussed the construc-tion of the Third Temple as part of nationalist ideology viewing the temple as a national symbol rather than a religious site.138

Since the formation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the war of

1967, these views have developed and changed quite dramatically. Motti Inbari notes that there is a growing trend of Israelis demanding to pray on the Temple Mount and to turn it into a centre of Jewish nation-hood. For example, the post-1967 period saw a rise in the number of operational plans to blow up the Masjids on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary.139 Members within Israeli society have demanded a change in the way that Israel runs the site and as such these groups ‘advocate action to end Muslim control of the site and to start a process what will lead into the establishment of the Third Temple.’140

The traditionalist religious Zionist leaders generally agree that it is forbid-den for a Jew to enter the Temple Mount / al-Aqsa Sanctuary until the time of the Messiah. However, some leading members of the Rabbinate have permitted entry and prayer in an individual capacity and the Council of Yesha Rabbis (Orthodox Rabbis from the illegal settlements in the West Bank and previously in the Gaza Strip) have permitted Jews to enter under certain restrictions.141

This decision was opposed by the majority of ultra-Orthodox rabbis who believe that all Jews are forbid-den from entering the Temple Mount as they are impure due to contact with the dead. They can only be purified with the ashes of the red heifer mixed with water which is not available, and they are also forbidden from entering the Holy of Holies (Kodesh Kodashim) whose precise location has been lost. It must be clarified at this point, that whilst many Jews maintained the notion that the Temple Mount was out of bounds for them, this did not hinder the argument

that the Jewish people should enjoy ‘property ownership’ of the area.142

Inbari describes a ‘messianic resurgence’ as ‘in Jewish tradition, messianic exception did not demand any active step to realize redemption, with the exception of the requirement to pray and to maintain ritual purity to enable the arrival of the redeemer. The Zionist consciousness sought to break this cognitive mold, advocat-ing concrete political action while rejecting and negating the passive tradition.’143

In 1996, the Council of Yesha Rabbis (CYR) ruled that Jews are not only permitted but actually encour-aged to enter the Temple Mount after undertaking a special ritual purifica-tion. Every Rabbi was encouraged ‘to go up [to the Temple Mount] himself, and to guide his congregants on how to do so in accordance with all the constrictions of Halacha (Jewish religious law)’.144 In Septem-ber 2003, following the re-opening of the Temple Mount to Jews after the al-Aqsa Intifada, there was an

CHAPTER SIX AL-AQSA IN THE ZIONIST VISION

Jewish Rulings on Entering the Temple Mount / al-Aqsa Sanctuary


39

outburst of visitors to the site. Within the first three months, some 4,000 Jews entered the site and this enthu-siasm ‘has been led by important religious and political leaders from within the religious Zionist camps, and not necessarily from its more extreme wings.’145

Motti Inbari, author of Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount, noted that there was a ‘clear phenomenon of the erosion and

weakening of the prohibition against Jews entering the Temple Mount’.146 In fact, according to Israeli Police records, around 70,000 Jews visited the site between November 2003 and October 2004, which means an average of 5,000 visitors a month.147 Since 2010 this figure has increased. This shift in the Jewish narrative with regards to the Temple Mount poses a substantive threat to the future of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary which is under Muslim Waqf ownership.

40

Chapter Seven: The Temple Movement of Israel

Organisations with the aim of demolishing Masjid al-Aqsa and Building a Jewish Temple

Since 1967, there has been a tangible increase in the number of voices advocating the building of the Third Temple and the removal of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary from Muslim hands. In 1984, members of Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) which calls for the building of illegal settle-ments were accused of attempting to dynamite the Dome of the Rock.148 Groups such as the Temple Institute

- which are explored in depth below- receive funding from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Municipality of Jerusalem.149 The Temple Mount Faithful is popular with more than 30 percent of Israeli voters and their views are also embraced by the current right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.150

The Temple Institute is the leading and central body in the Third Temple Movement in Israel. It is an educa-tional institute which runs various Jewish college preparatory schools, known as Yeshiva (academies) for young adults and youths, a museum,

a publishing house and also a project which seeks to produce and recre-ate objects to be used in the Jewish Temple.151 It was established in 1984 by Israel Ariel and is recognised as an official institute by the Ministry of Education. Thousands of state

Inside Israel

The Temple Institute


41

school children, IDF soldiers and Christian Zionists visit the Temple institute every year.

Its leader Israel Ariel is considered politically aligned to far-right parties such as Kach, which is violently anti-Arab. In fact, when the ‘Jewish Underground’- an Israeli organisa-tion which planned to blow up the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Masjid, was uncovered in 1984, Ariel was among the few voices who publicly supported its actions.152 He was particularly influenced by the war of 1967 and he believed that the Messiah would soon appear and build the Third Temple.

As this never happened, Ariel came to the conclusion that the construction of the Temple was in fact the task ‘incumbent on the public as a whole, as a precursor to the coming of the Messiah’.153 This led him to establish the Temple Institute as he believed that the construction of the Temple would be the final stages of redemption for the people of Israel. Its members and leaders regularly visit the Temple Mount to pray and the Institute receives finan-cial support from state bodies and organisations in Israel. Its annual conference has been supported by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and other well-respected figures outside the Temple Mount circles.153

The Institute appears to have gained wide acceptance of the general public and ‘has straddled the boundary between ‘legitimate’ academic study of the Temple (theoretical studies and folkloristic replications) and actual actions intended to promote the construc-tion of the Third Temple- something that remains taboo in religious terms’.155 Despite the Institute’s aims, it has been able to gather substantial amount of support- tacit at least- as it ‘is careful to avoid excessive manifes-tations of its ambivalent position’.156

The aim of the Temple Institute is however clarified in a statement

as observing ‘the positive command-ment in the Torah- to build a Temple to the Lord’.157 This is significant as it challenges the widely held belief amongst the Jewish population that the construction of the Temple will be a supernatural and miraculous act which will occur after the arrival of the Messiah. The educational aspect of the Institute focuses on changing the public opinion through museum exhibits, educational curricula, festi-vals, books and material surround-ing the issue of the Temple and the debate surrounding permission to enter the Temple Mount.158 In 1994, the institute attempted to secure exclusive Jewish ownership of the Temple Mount.

During Passover in 1997, the institute began a project to produce a gold-plated candelabrum modelled on the one used in the Second Temple. This culminated in the creation of a bronze gold-plated candelabrum in 1999 funded by Ukrainian business-man Vadim Rabinovitch at the estimated cost of one million US dollars. In 2000, the ‘Women for the Temple’ was set up, organising an annual conference for women only on issues surrounding the Temple Mount. Whilst the demand for the construction of the Third Temple forms its basic aim, ‘the institute maneuvers carefully between its inter-nal message and its various external methods, some of which sometimes present a more restricted vision’.159 Even so, Motti Inbari states that ‘The institutes objectives are very clear, and culminate in the construction of the Third Temple’.160 In March 2010, the institute launched the first annual ‘International Temple Mount Aware-ness Day’.

42

The Temple Mount Faith-ful (TMF) was established by a leading figure in the Third Temple Movement, Gershon Salomon. It is the oldest and best known mainly due to its public actions such as its events which demand that the Muslim presence be removed from the Temple Mount161 - as such it is generally seen as the biggest threat to the Sanctuary by the Muslim Waqf. In fact, the TMF was the first organisation to demand the removal of the Dome of the Rock and Masjid al-Aqsa from the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and for the transformation of the area into a Jewish Centre.162 On its website, the rebuilding of the Temple is held up as their ‘major goal’ and they state that they channel their efforts into making this a reality.163

Gershon Salomon descended from one of the earliest Zionist pioneers in Palestine and his family settled in Jerusalem in 1811.164 As a soldier he participated in the battle for Jerusalem in the war of 1967 and believes that he became an agent of god during that conflict. Salomon states that he regularly experiences divine revelation which guides him towards the reconstruction of the Temple. He established the TMF at the end of the 1960s. Salomon, with the golden Dome of the Rock in the background, has said on Israeli televi-sion: ‘It is time this pagan edifice ceased to exist’.165

Many of the events organised by the TMF are related to the Jewish calendar and ancient rituals linked to the Temple Mount. TMF also marks Zionist occasions such as the Memorial Day for Fallen IDF Soldiers and Jerusalem Day, most of the marches and processions highlight the organisation’s demands to end the Muslim administration of the Temple Mount. ‘The aspiration of rebuilding the Temple appears to have been perceived as a distant goal

that should follow more immediate- and, for Salomon, more important- objectives such as the removal of Islam from the Temple Mount and the transformation of the site into the centre of Jewish nationhood’.166

Inbari (2009) remarks that whilst the movement doesn’t engage in any violent or illegal activities, ‘its central message- the removal of the Masjids from the Temple Mount- may be perceived as conveying an aggressive message for Islam and, thus, may cause serious conflict on the Mount between Muslims worshippers and Israeli law enforcement’.

In 1990 during the height of the first Intifada, the TMF’s intentions to lay a cornerstone in the Sanctu-ary led to such a reaction. The Waqf called on Muslims to defend the site and there were mass riots following conflict with Israeli forces. Seventeen Palestinians died, hundreds more were injured and this incident is considered the most serious on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary since the war of 1967.167

When it was established, the TMF was able to draw in a wide range of supporters however, over time a religious faction broke off and formed the Movement for the Estab-lishment of the Temple. After losing a significant chunk of its supporters, the TMF has been able to draw on support from right wing Christian evangelicals and Christian Zionists. Due to this change in supporters, the message of the TMF has an increasing emphasis on rebuilding the Temple as a central objective.168 Gershon Salomon, it seems, has shifted from his original focus of securing Jewish sovereignty of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary ‘onto apocalyptic and dualistic lines, depicting the Palestinian presence on the Temple Mount as an enemy that must be annihilated in order for redemption to come to the world’.169

CHAPTER SEVEN THE TEMPLE MOVEMENT OF ISRAEL

Temple Mount Faithful


43

On its website it states:

Long Term ObjectivesLiberating the Temple Mount from Arab (Islamic) occupation. The Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque were placed on this Jewish or Biblical holy site as a specific sign of Islamic conquest and domination. The Temple Mount can never be consecrated to the Name of G-d without removing these pagan shrines. It has been suggested that they be removed, transferred to and rebuilt at Mecca.

Consecrating the Temple Mount to the Name of G-d so that it can become the moral and spiritual center of Israel, of the Jewish people and of the entire world according to the words of all the Hebrew prophets. It is envisioned that the consecration of the Temple Mount and the Temple itself will focus Israel on (a) fulfilling the vision and mission given at Mt. Sinai for Israel to be a chosen people separate unto G-d, a holy nation, and a nation of priests, and (b) becoming a light unto all the nations [Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 42:6] so that the Name of G-d may be revered by all nations and the Biblical way of life may be propagated throughout the world.

Rebuilding the Third Temple in accordance with the words of all the Hebrew prophets. This temple will be a house of prayer for the people of Israel and all nations.

Providing a Biblical point of assembly in order that all Israel may fulfill the commandment to assemble three times annually at the times of G-d’s festivals and at the place where G-d established His Name forever.

Making Biblical Jerusalem the real, undivided capital of the state of Israel.

Rejecting false “peace talks” which will result in the dividing of Israel and the breaking of G-d’s covenant. G-d promised to Abraham and to his seed that the land and the borders of Israel are eternal and cannot be divided and given to other people and nations.

Supporting the settlements in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights as they are holy. No one is allowed to break the Word and the Will of G-d by commanding the settlers to leave. In the Biblical era, G-d commanded the people of Israel to settle the land completely. This command is applicable today. The holy connection and covenant between G-d, the People of Israel and the Land of Israel is eternal.

Short Term ObjectivesTo strengthen the organizational structure of the movement in Jerusalem in order to pursue its Long-Term objectives.

To raise the awareness of the people of Israel to the significance of their nation in G-d’s plan of redemption. This will be accomplished in a number of ways including (a) youth education, (b) formation of youth clubs, (c) publication and propagation of relevant educational materials.

To demonstrate the fulfillment of the TANACH to the people of Israel.

To publicly proclaim the message of the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Movement in newspapers, flyers, posters, newsletters, radio and television.

To demonstrate publicly to raise awareness of Israel to the issue of the Third Temple, the Temple Mount and the Land of Israel.

To buy a house in the Old City (Biblical Jerusalem) near the Temple Mount to establish a spiritual and educational center to be used by everyone. The four-ton cornerstone will be stored and exhibited on this site. This first stone of the Third Temple will soon be laid.

To organize conferences for the study of the issues dealing with the Temple Mount and the Third Temple.

44

The Movement for the Estab-lishment of the Temple is a more religious and influential offshoot of the Temple Mount Faithful estab-lished by Yosef Elboim. Its activists come mainly from the Haredi neigh-bourhoods of Jerusalem and it was established in 1987. It was setup as many supporters in the TMF believed that Salomon did not attach any religious significance to the Temple Mount, and focused instead on the Temple as the zenith of Zionism. The organisation also wanted there to be a more practical focus on actually building the Temple- hence the name. The TMF on the other hand had an original focus of securing sovereignty over the Mount.170

The Movement for the Establish-ment of the Temple (MET) envisages the Temple Mount as the national, religious and spiritual centre of the Jewish people and also demands the removal of ‘alien enemies’ and the ‘disgrace’ from it.171 Inbari states that although this group is generally unknown, it is one of the most signif-icant groups advocating the construc-tion of the Third Temple.172 This Movement is significant mainly for its ability to combine its Messianic activ-ism with adherence to the Haredi way of life- thus expanding the potential base of support. As such, MET holds that both the Haredi and Zionist groups are mistaken in their passive approach with regards to the Temple.

They were even successful in influencing the Committee of Yesha Rabbis of Gush Emunim- the Israeli settler movement- in overturning a centuries old ruling that it was imper-missible to enter the Temple Mount in 1996. The new ruling ‘showed that the goal of changing Orthodox attitudes on the question of the Temple Mount was attainable’.173 A survey commissioned by the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Centre showed that 42 percent of the public favoured permitting Jews to pray on the Temple Mount whilst 55% were opposed. With regards to the establishment of a Third Temple, 53% were in favour while 37% were against.174

MET also hold visits to pray on the Temple Mount although they tend to eschew publicity and so are more successful in gaining access. There is a monthly journal published named the Yibaneh Hamikdash (Let the Temple be Built) which has become key in disseminating the organisation’s ideas. Following some concessions on land made by Israel during the Oslo process, the movement began to strengthen the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount and also make links to the Orthodox settler community. The annual ‘Temple Feast’ held to raise funds and network is attended by hundreds of people.175

CHAPTER SEVEN THE TEMPLE MOVEMENT OF ISRAEL

The movement for the Establish-ment of the Temple, the Temple Insti-tute, the Jewish Leadership faction, Chai Vekayam, the El Har Hamor association and the Women for the Temple are all part of a wider coali-tion of Temple Admirers. Members

of the Temple Mount coalition also include Members of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Michael Ben Ari, Otniel Schneller and Yesha Rabbini-cal Council Chairman Rabbi Dov Lior and Rabbi Yuval Sherlo.176

Movement for the Establishment of the Temple

Temple Admirers Coalition


45

Yehuda Etzion is a significant member in the Third Temple movement. He established the Jewish Underground whose true objective was to remove the Masajid from the Temple Mount and prepare for the establishment of the Third Temple. Etzion, who headed the Jewish under-ground group, was discovered with plans to bomb al-Aqsa Masjid and is reported as stating: ‘This is more than a positive thing- this is a desir-able thing, and I am looking forward to seeing these Masjids reduced to ruins’.177 Etzion also urged the Israeli government to ‘send army bulldozers to the site and destroy these buildings once and for all, and if the state is not willing to do so, let other Jews do it’.178 He believes that the destruction of Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock are necessary for the redemption of the Jewish people.

In a booklet written by Etzion during his trial in 1985, he argued that the Temple Mount was the eternal property of the Jewish people and that this ownership never will expire.179 Etzion adds that the respon-sibility to rebuild the Temple lies with the Jewish people and that ‘strangers’ must be prevented from entering the site. Inbari clarifies Etzion’s belief that:

‘Just as Halachic authorization was received for IDF soldiers to

enter the Temple Mount areas for the purpose of its conquest, so they must return to the site to concretize this conquest by removing the alien presence. ‘Cleansing’ the al-Aqsa Sanctuary of the Masajid will create the necessary support and under-standing for full redemption. The cleansed mount will be the catalyst for the people’s ascent up the scales of sanctity.’180

After his release from prison,

Etzion went on to establish the Movement for Redemption in 1989 and later joined the Chai Vekayam Movement (Alive and Well) in 1993. Chai Vekayam was based in the settle-ment Bat Ayin, which was the base of a Jewish terror group that placed a container of explosives outside an Arab girls school in Jerusalem in 2002. The main aim of the movement is to enter the al-Aqsa Sanctuary to pray. As they see themselves as ‘free from the yoke of the law in matters concerning the entry into the Temple Mount,’ they often pray there without permission.181 Images of the members of the movement being forcibly removed has in fact raised awareness amongst the Israeli population of the issue and led many to demonstrate, demanding more rights for Jews at the Temple Mount. Etzion has also organised many traditional Temple sacrifices in areas overlooking the Temple Mount.

Outside Israel, there are very limited organisations which are entirely dedicated to the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple. However, this does not mean that there are no organisations who support the rebuilding of the Temple- in fact, there are large numbers of Christian Zionists who believe that the Jewish Temple must be rebuilt before the

return of the Messiah and the battle of Armageddon. Much of the support that the Third Temple movements in Israel receive is from American Jews and Christians, and not Israelis. For example Victoria Clark of Allies for Armageddon, pointed out that the Temple Institute is visited and funded by American Jews and Christians rather than Israelis.182

Outside Israel

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Chapter Eight: The Armageddon Lobby

There is an explosive alliance between the apocalyptic Jewish Third Temple Movement and Chris-tian Zionists who both believe that the Temple must be rebuilt before the coming of the Messiah. In fact, many Christians Zionists believe that the biblical prophecy of the war at Armageddon will be sparked by the Jewish occupation of the Muslim al-Aqsa Sanctuary and the rebuild-ing of the temple, in which millions

of Jews will be killed.183 Whilst this view may have been a cause for concern amongst Jews, ‘most Israelis gladly accept the financial and political support of apocalyptic Evangelicals, first because Evangeli-cals pose no immediate threat to Israel, and second, because Israelis are convinced that the Evangelical apocalyptic scenario is completely bogus’.184

Christian Zionism is the belief amongst certain Evangelical Chris-tians that the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel will herald the Second Coming of Jesus. According to Christian Zionists, Jerusalem must be Israel’s undivided capital and that the Muslim al-Aqsa Sanctuary must be destroyed and replaced with a new Jewish Temple.185 The battle of Armageddon that this event will

spark will be one of suffering on a cosmic scale and all those who refuse to accept Jesus as their Messiah will be slain. Christian Zionists believe that ‘true Christians’ like them will be spared this suffering and will be whisked up to heaven in what is known as ‘the Rapture’.186

As such, Christian Zionists actively support the state of Israel

Christian Zionism and the threat to Masjid al-Aqsa

Beliefs of Christian Zionists and the Jewish Temple


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and the re-building of the Temple in place of Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of Rock. According to their literal reading of the Hebrew scrip-tures, Christian Zionists believe that the Jews remain God’s chosen people and promises made to Abraham remain true and are awaiting fulfil-ment.187 As such, they believe that the promise of land made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph was uncon-ditional and eternal and consequently encourage Jews to return to Palestine and occupy what they see as their eternal heritage.188

A poll conducted by the Pew Forum of Religion and Public Life in July 2006 found that 42 percent of all Americans believe that Israel ‘was given to the Jewish people by God’ and a poll in October 2006 found that 31 percent either ‘strongly believed’ or ‘believe’ that Israel must have all the promised land, including Jerusalem, to facilitate the Second Coming.189 Victoria Clark of Allies for Armaged-don also states that Israel-Palestine is visited by hundreds of thousands of Christian Zionists every year.190

The political beliefs of Christian Zionism can be broken down into three features: a negative attitude to Arabs and Palestinians, an apocalyp-tic view of the future and a hostility to peace negotiations.191 Sizer points out that whilst unconditionally

supporting Israel, Christian Zionists are hostile to Arabs, Palestinians and what they see as the rise of militant Islam. They perceive America and Israel as being pitted against an evil world dominated by Islamic regimes and this perception was sharpened following 9/11 and Bush’s ‘War on Terror’.

Christian Zionism focuses on biblical prophecies of apocalyptic death and suffering and seems to constantly read events in this genera-tion as signalling the imminent destruction of the world. Hal Lindsey asserts that ‘We are the generation the prophets were talking about. We have witnessed biblical prophecies come true. The birth of Israel. The decline in American power and morality...We are the generation that will see the end of times...’192 The final strand of hostility towards peace negotiations take the form of actively supporting the continued growth and expansion of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank as well as backing extreme right-wing plans such as the ‘trans-fer’ of Palestinians to neighbouring Arab states.193 ‘Christian Zionists are aiding and abetting the activities of a highly motivated minority of right-wing and religious Jews in both Israel and America who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state and so all peace plans.’194

The Zionist vision was nurtured and shaped by Christian Zionists from the 1820’s, ‘long before it was able to inspire widespread Jewish support a century later’.195 In fact, the activities of early Christian Zionists have accounted for the two major milestones of Zionist history: Britain’s decision that a homeland for Jews must be in Palestine and also America’s hasty de facto recognition of the state of Israel in 1948.196 Victo-

ria Clark goes as far as to say that it would be fair to say that there would probably be a Jewish state today but it might not have been in the Middle East.

The roots of Christian Zionism in their modern form originate from an Irishman named John Nelson Darby and a Scotsman named Edward Irving in early nineteenth-century Britain. These two men had a signifi-

Historical Roots of Christian Zionism

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cant influence on the contemporary Christian fundamentalism in terms of ideas about the role that Jews would play in end of time prophe-cies. Darby challenged early views that Jews must be converted to Chris-tianity before they were restored to Palestine to follow biblical prophecy, by stating that they could be restored as Jews until the Second Coming.197 This meant that energies could be channelled away from converting Jews to simply supporting their move to the Holy Land. As such the issue of foreign policy became of increas-ing concern to these ‘Restorationist’ Christians.

The Earl of Shaftesbury reflected this new direction and the need to marry biblical interest in the Jews and their homeland with national foreign policy.198 In fact it was Shaft-esbury who first helped coined the now famous Zionist slogan ‘A land

without a people for a people without a land’. In 1901 Shaftesbury wrote that ‘Palestine is a country without a people; the Jews are a people without a country’.199 The roots of Christian Zionism run deep in the American administration with George Bush, the forebearer of the American Presidents, publishing an influential piece of work on bible prophecy in 1844. Entitled the Valley of Vision, he forcefully argued for a literal and man-made restoration of Jews to Palestine.200 Leading American politi-cians who were Christian Zionists include Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Other notable supporters or sympathisers of Christian Zionism include British Prime Minster Lloyd George, T.E. Lawrence, General Allenby and Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour who produced the Balfour Declaration.201

CHAPTER EIGHT THE ARMAGEDDON LOBBY

At the turn of the century when Christian Zionism began to dwindle in the UK, it emerged in America with greater vigour. Today most of the influential Christian Zionist leaders and groups are based in the US. ‘Prophecy conferences, Christian book sales, Internet merchandising of bible study materials and Holy Land tours add up to a multibillion-dollar business in America, the like of which exists nowhere in the world.’202 Charismatic speakers include Hal Lindsey, Jerry Falwell and Jan Markell and organisations such as the Unity Coalition for Israel, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews allow Chris-tian Zionists to ‘bless Israel’ through financial, touristic, spiritual, diplo-matic and political means.203

Christian Zionists form a major threat to the al-Aqsa Sanctuary as they openly promote the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple and the destruc-tion of the buildings on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary. They are also significant as they provide substantial financial support to the Temple Mount within Israel. For example Timothy P. Weber of On the Road to Armaged-don, remarked that ‘without financial support from America, the work of the Temple Mount Faithful would not be possible’.204 The support for rebuilding of the Temple ‘regard-less of the problematic theological implications and the danger of provoking extreme violence’ has also been highlighted as one of the major problems of Christian Zionism.205

America and Christian Zionism


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Within the US, the Christian Zionist movement is a lot more substantial and also greatly influen-tial. Although Christian Zionists and Zionists make up only 10% of the US electorate (although some statistics put them at around a quarter), they are believed to be the largest social movement in the US and compro-mise the largest voting bloc within

the Republican Party.211 Major organ-isations forming part of the network include the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, The National Unity Coalition for Israel, Christian Friends of Israel, The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Bridges for Peace and Christians United for Israel. American leaders of Christian Zionism include Jerry

Notable Christian Zionist Organisations within the USA

Dr Rev Stephen Sizer, author of Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon, states that Christian Zionism describes a broad coalition of agencies, predominately Gentile and that there are over 250 Christian Zionist organisations operating in America alone.206 In Britain, the most influential organisations include the Church Ministry Among Jewish People (also known as the Israel Trust of the Anglican Church); Christian Friends of Israel; Intercessors For Britain; Prayer Friends of Israel and the Council of Christians and Jews.207 Other organisations include the Israel Britain Evangelistic Association and there is a UK branch providing support to the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. Contemporary British Christian Zionism leaders include Derek Prince, David Pawson, Lance Lambert, and Walter Riggans.

The Church Ministry Among Jews UK (CMJ UK) is part of a network of groups- including branches in Australia, South Africa and the USA- which has been ‘invest-ing in the spiritual rebirth of the Jewish people since 1809’.208 It was previously known as the London Jews’ Society. CEO of CMJ UK is

Robin Aldridge and its president is Bishop John Taylor. CMJ’s websites states that they employ evangelists in London and Manchester to encour-age the growth of Messianic Jews and Messianic Jewish congregations. They also state that they coordinate and host study tours to Israel as well as ‘partnering with other Christian organisations that support Israel’. They have eleven staff working at their headquarters based in Notting-hamshire and produce newsletters and research papers.

Another major organisation with a branch in the UK is the Christian Friends of Israel who declare that ‘we are Christians who love Israel and its peoples and believe that God has a special place for them in His Kingdom purposes before the return of Messiah’.209 A recently formed organisation is the Anglican Friends of Israel (2005) which aims to increase support for Israel in the Church of England. On its websites it states that its aims are to ‘support the people of Israel and to secure defen-sible borders for the State of Israel’ and to ‘protect Christian communi-ties threatened by Islamic extremism in the Middle East’.210

Notable Christian Zionist Organisations within the UK

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Falwell, Mike Evans, Pat Robertson, Hal Lindsey and John Hagee.

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), the most politicised Christian Zionist organi-sation according to Sizer was formed in 1980 and its annual gatherings are reported to bring over five thousand people to the city to proclaim their love for Israel.212 Even in its nascent form in 1967 when the UN passed Resolution 242 condemning Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the entire international community closed their embassies in Jerusalem, the International Christian Embassy moved to Jerusalem to express solidarity with Israel. They are also usually quoted by the Israeli govern-ment when they need a ‘sympathetic Christian viewpoint’ and various Israeli Prime Ministers have spoken at their annual international gather-ings in Jerusalem.213

A statement by the organisation reads:

The ICEJ is believed to have branch offices in around 60 countries, sixty staff members and representa-tives in 114 nations.215 Whilst it has been careful to avoid controversy concerning the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, ‘the ICEJ affirmed its commitment that like Moslems, Jews be able to worship again on Temple Mount, implicitly within a rebuilt Jewish Temple’.216 ICEJ was previ-ously implicated with funding the Jerusalem Temple Foundation which is committed to the destruction of the Dome of the Rock and Sizer states that they are ‘contributing to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians

from their historic homelands’.217 They appear to have a wide base of supporters across the world; in 2000 they managed to gather 14 million signatories for their petition endors-ing Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital.

The largest pro-Israel organisa-tion of its kind is the National Unity Coalition for Israel which opposes the ‘establishment of a Palestinian state within the borders of Israel’ and aims to generate support for the State of Israel.218 It was founded in July 1991 by Esther Levens and, according to its website, brings together around 200 partners accounting for more than 40 million Americans.219 Levens previously served on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Unity Coalition supports the ‘Israeli Initiative’ which wants Palestinians in the West Bank to be transferred to Jordan. The Unity Coalition is believed to wield significant influence in the halls of power in Washington. Constituent groups include Bridges for Peace and Christian Friends of Israel.

Based in Chicago, the Interna-tional Fellowship of Christians and Jews is believed to have raised around a quarter of a billion dollars for Israel between 1995-2005.220 Set up in 1983 by Rabbi Eckstein, the IFCJ has been helping to ‘build broad support for Israel’ and had a revenue income of over 80 million dollars in 2008.221 It has received glowing endorsements from Israeli Prime Ministers such as Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Christian Friends of Israel (CFI) was founded by Ray and Sharon Sanders in 1985 with a group of Christian leaders from England, France and the United States. They have branches in the UK, America, Germany and also in Jerusalem. Their mission statement reads: ‘We exist to comfort and to support the people of Israel, and to inform Chris-tians around the world of God’s plans for Israel’. CFI’s work consists

‘Because of the sovereign purposes of God for the City, Jerusalem must remain undivided, under Israeli sovereignty, open to all peoples, the capital of Israel only...It would be further error for the nations to recog-nise a Palestinian state in any part of Eretz Israel...To this end we commit to work with Israel and to encourage the Diaspora to fulfil the vision and goal of gathering to Israel the greater majority of all Jewish People from throughout the world’.214

CHAPTER EIGHT THE ARMAGEDDON LOBBY


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of supporting Jewish immigrants as well as Messianic education. The organisation has worked with the International Christian Embassy as well as Bridges for Peace.222

Christians United for Israel (CUI) was created in 2006 by the influential Christian right leader John Hagee. The organisation promotes the notion that Christians ‘have an obligation to defend Israel’.223 ‘Hagee has claimed that he has a mailing list of two million people, and the twenty thousand ‘spiritual leaders’ on his list all forward his e-mails to their own supporters, who in some cases have their own lists of a million people’.224 In 2008, Hagee gained widespread media coverage after endorsing Republican nominee John McCain, who remarked he was ‘proud’ to have the pastor’s support.225 In 2006 it was reported in the Huffington Post that the CUFI had convened a series of off-the-record meetings at the White House about policies in the Middle East.226

John Hagee is the pastor for an evangelical ‘megachurch’ in Texas and is known for his militarist stance on US policy in the Middle East. He is a well known figure in the field of Christian Zionism and advocates full Jewish control of the Holy Land. He believes Jesus will return to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem only after the Jews have rebuilt the Temple of Soloman- thus ‘requiring the destruction of Islamic shrines and Masjids currently on that site’227 He has been the recipient of an award from the Zionist Organization of America and is the author of various books including Jerusalem Count-down: A Warning to the World.

In a 2006 interview on National Public Radio, Hagee said that there was ‘no room for compromise’ with ‘radical Islam’ stating ‘well Islam in general- those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews’.228 According to his CUFI biography, ‘John Hagee Ministries occupies a 50,000 square-

foot production centre which houses both radio and television studios, 100 telephone prayer partners, and a vast distribution centre. Currently, Hagee telecasts on eight major networks, 162 independent television stations, and 51 radio stations throughout the globe broadcasting in over 190 nations’.229

Hal Lindsey is believed to be the most influential of all the Christian Zionists of the 20th century and was described by the New York Times as the ‘best selling author of the decade’.230 He has written over 20 books on Christian Zionism, hosts his own radio and televi-sion programmes, leads regular pro-Israel Holy Land tours and his most famous book ‘The Late Great Planet Earth’ has sold around 18-20 million copies in the world. ‘Lindsey not only regards the founding of the State of Israel and capture of Jerusalem as the fulfilment of biblical prophecy but insists, controversially, that the Jewish Temple must also be rebuilt. Initially, in 1970, he insisted this would have to be in place of the Dome of the Rock’.231

Lindsey now claims that the Temple can be built twenty-six metres away from the Dome of the Rock. Even so, he is unwilling to compromise on the need to build the Temple: ‘The rebuilding of the Temple is significant not only because of the potential firestorm it will create between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. It is also a critical development in the entire prophetic scenario. The Bible makes it clear that in the last days the Antichrist will establish his reign in the Temple of Jerusalem. Therefore, the Temple must and will be rebuilt’.232

Although the Temple Mount

movement in Israel is perceived as the biggest threat to the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary, Christian Zionists play a big role in this. As well as actively support-ing and funding the Temple Mount movement, they are active propo-nents of the rebuilding of the Jewish temple. Christian Zionists- especially

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in the US- also tend to be better funded and more influential with larger number of supporters and so have been more successful in promot-ing their agenda. Furthermore, as Sizer states Christian Zionism poses

an overall threat to the Palestin-ian case as it ‘offers an uncritical endorsement of the Israeli political right and at the same time shows an inexcusable lack of compassion for the Palestinian tragedy’.233


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Conclusion

This report exposes the grave dangers faced by the holy al-Aqsa Sanctuary in Jerusalem. The will to destroy the centuries old Masajid is taking hold within mainstream Israeli society. Extreme opinions which in previous decades lurked at the fringes now take centre stage in political discourse where East Jerusa-lem is concerned. Palestinians on the other hand are being driven out of their places of worship, including from the sacred al-Aqsa. Their rights guarded and guaranteed by interna-tional treaties and covenants are fast being eroded.

The threats to the al-Aqsa Sanctu-ary come from an array of sources and groups and restricted access to Masjid al-Aqsa is simply one aspect which demonstrates how Israeli policies have undermined the Pales-tinian legal and cultural claims to the site. The ultimate desire to build the Third Temple on the site of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary is the culmination

of a number of Zionist designs, each with its own underlying purpose. The Christian Zionists wish to see the Temple built to fulfil the Armaged-don prophecy, and their actions belay the self-fulfilment of that prophecy. Ironically, they are no friends of Israel as they expect that most of the world’s Jewry will perish as a result of the fall-out of the Temple being built. Israelis on the other hand wish to see the fulfilment of their religious ‘rights’ which the building of the Temple will epitomise.

The infringement of Palestinian rights in and around the al-Aqsa Sanctuary has intensified in recent months. We have witnessed an alarming increase in the number of attacks on the al-Aqsa Sanctuary and its worshippers, with trespass by extremist Israelis, politicians and even soldiers, becoming a norm.

The rise of extremist Israeli politi-cians such as Moshe Feiglin and Uri


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Ariel who have become members of the Israeli Knesset, appears to be inciting such behaviour. Perpetrators act safe in the knowledge that no recriminations need be feared, and that they are protected by occupy-ing Israeli forces even during their trespass.

These latest developments serve the aims of the Temple Movement in Israel which openly seeks to destroy Masjid al-Aqsa and replace it with a Jewish temple. The more subtle but influential role of Christian Zionist organisations must also be taken into consideration. Other more direct threats to the architectural stability of the Masjid come from settlers in Jerusalem; these include tunnelling and also Israeli excavations which have little regard for Islamic archaeol-ogy. The attacks on the Masjid which have been catalogued in this report also demonstrate that the threat is real and must be dealt with before further

harm is caused, with the potential for sparking even greater violence than already witnessed in the region.

This report was produced in response to the popular allegation that any threat to the sacred al-Aqsa Sanctuary is merely imaginary. The evidences presented here reflect the real and genuine nature of that threat. This report provides an array of historic accounts, analysis and information belaying a formidable source of danger to the site. These threats, very much like the ‘quiet Judaisation of Jerusalem’, are a slow and steady process which may not always hit the headlines but whose actions could ultimately lead to the destruction of Masjid al-Aqsa. The international community must lose its apathetic stance and take action to protect the Palestinian cultural and religious heritage in East Jerusalem, of which the Masjid al-Aqsa is the pivotal part.

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1 Ismail Adam Patel, Virtues of Jerusalem: An Islamic Perspective. Al Aqsa Publishers, (2006) Leicester, p viii. 2 Marian Houk, ‘Countdown to Armageddon: A review of Israeli Regional Planning Commis-sion Activities’, Jerusalem Quarterly, Spring 2009, Issue 34, p89. 3 The Furthest Masjid: The History of Al-Aqsa Masjid from Earliest Times to the Present Day, Islamic Concern for Palestine, Mustaqim, p8. 4 Patel, supra note 1, pv-vi. 5 The Furthest Masjid, Supra note 4, p9. 6 Ibid, p11. 7 Ibid, p19. 8 Ibid, p20. 9 Ibid, p21. 10 Ibid.11 Ibid, p24.12 Philip Mattar, The Role of the Mufti of Jerusalem, Columbia University Press, 1988, p104-5. 13 Ibid, p107.14 Ibid. 15 Muhammad H. El-Farra, ‘The Role of the United Nations Vis-a-Vis the Palestine Question’, Law and Contemporary Problems, Volume 33, Number 1, Winter 1968, p73. 16 Mattar, supra note 13, p109.17 Ibid, p110. 18 Ibid.19 Ibid, p113. 20 Mary Ellen Lundsten, ‘Wall Politics: Zionist and Palestinian Strategies in Jerusalem, 1928’, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 8, Number 1, (Autumn 1978), p22.21 Ibid.22 Mattar, supra note 13, p115.23 Lundsten, supra note 21, p24. 24 Mattar, supra note 13, p115.25 Philip Mattar, ‘The Role of the Mufti of Jerusalem in the Political Struggle over the Western Wall, 1928-9’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 9, Number 1, 1983, p115.26 United Nations, General Assembly Security Council, 23 February 1968, http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/D3F11CD6E456490C85256259004D6547 and El-Farra, supra note 16, p74. 27 Ibid.28 Report of the Commission appointed by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the approval of the Council of the League of Nations, to determine the rights and claims of Moslems and Jews in connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem. December 1930. http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/59a92104ed00dc468525625b00527fea?OpenDocument 29 Lundsten, supra note 21, p24.30 Ibid, p19. 31 Ibid, p19-20.32 Numerous references can be found to a recording of Motta Gur saying in Hebrew: “Har Habayit beyadeinu!”33 William J. Hamblinn and David Rolph Seely, Solomn’s Temple: Myth and History, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 2007, p200.34 Marian Houk, ‘Countdown to Armageddon: A Review of Israeli Regional Planning Commis-sion Activities’, Jerusalem Quarterly, Spring 2009, Issue 34, pp 89-99, p90. 35 The Furthest Masjid: The History of Al-Aqsa Masjid , p29. 36 Houk, Supra note 3, p9037 The Furthest Masjid: The History of Al-Aqsa, p31. 38 Craig Larkin and Micheal Dumper, ‘UNESCO and Jerusalem: Constraints, challenges and opportunities,’ Editorial for Jerusalem Quarterly, Autumn 2009, Issue 39, p17.39 General Conference of UNESCO Resolution on the Protection of Cultural Property in Jerusalem, 20 November, 1974 cited in Craig Larkin and Micheal Dumper, supra note 7, p17.


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40 Craig Larkin and Micheal Dumper, supra note 7, p17. 41 Ibid.42 Ismail Adam Patel, Virtues of Jerusalem: An Islamic Perspective. Al Aqsa Publishers, (2006) Leicester, p ix. 43 Michael Dumper, Islam and Israel: Muslim Religious Endowments and the Jewish State, 1994, Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington, D.C., p101.44 Ibid, p109. 45 Ibid, p111. 46 Ibid, p115. 47 Houk, supra note 3, p96.48 Jonathon Cook, ‘Targeting Haram Al-Sharif,’ Al-Ahram Weekly, 31 July- 6 August 2003, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/649/re10.htm (Last accessed 25 March 2010). 49 Ibid.50 Ibid.51 Stephen Sizer, ‘Seminar 5: The Coming Last Day’s Temple- Ready to Rebuild?’, Christ Church Virginia Water, UK, http://www.cc-vw.org/articles/zcs5.pdf (Last accessed 18 March 2010). 52 Meeting notes of the Security Council can be found at: http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/6A686ED09710686A0525680300715D34 (last visited 23 December 2010)53 Motti Inbari, ‘Religious Zionism and the Temple Mount Dilemma- Key Trends’, Israeli Studies, Volume12, Number 2, 2007, p31.54 Inbari, Jewish Fundamentalism, p31.55 Motti Inbari, Religious Zionism, p31. 56 The facts were widely reported in international newspapers at the time, and discussed at a meeting of UNESCO, notes to which can be found here: http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/A43902D40C1107ED85256EA70052AEA5 (last visited 23 December 2010)57 Quoted by Al-Ahram Weekly58 Al-Aqsa Intifada Timeline, 28 September 2005, Al Jazeera English, http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2005/09/2008410115734941640.html 59 Helena Lindholm Schulz and Juliane Hammer, The Palestinian diaspora: formation of identi-ties and politics of homeland, 2003, Routledge, London, p162. 60 Helena Lindholm Schulz and Juliane Hammer, The Palestinian diaspora, p163. 61 Khalid Amayreh, Hardline threat to al-Aqsa Masjid, Al Jazeera English, 28 July 2004, http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2004/07/200841012917823557.html 62 Ibid. 63 Aaron Klein, Arabs, Israelis prepare Temple Mount Showdown, 6 August 2005, WorldNet-Daily.com, http://70.85.195.205/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45642.64 Palestine Media Centre, Palestinians Form Peaceful Human Shield to Protect al-Aqsa Masjid, 11April 2005, http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2005%20News%20Archives/April%202005%20News/11n/Palestinians%20Form%20Peaceful%20Human%20Shield%20to%20Protect%20Al-Aqsa%20Masjid,%20Revava%20Vows%20to%20Storm%20Muslim%20Holy%20Site%20Again%20on%20May%209.htm. 65 Rajnaara Akhtar, ‘Digging up more hostility’, The Guardian, 9 February 2007 66 Friends of Al Aqsa Press Release, Israeli Fundamentalists instigate riots in Masjid Aqsa (updated), 25 October 2009, http://www.aqsa.org.uk/NEWS/PressRelease/tabid/62/ctl/Details/mid/375/ItemID/2776/language/en-US/Default.aspx (last accessed 14 March 2010). 67 Ma’an News Agency, Israeli forces raid Al-Aqsa compound, 6 March 2010, http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=266160 (Last Accessed 14 March 2010). 68 Ibid.69 Islamic conference: Al-Aqsa fighting may ignite religious war, Ynet News, 6 March 2010, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3858583,00.html.70 http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/al-aqsa-mosque-and-its-surrounding-area-attacked-100-times-during-2011/ 71 http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/11-thousand-settlers-and-soldiers-raided-al-aqsa-mosque-in-2012/ 72 http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/zionist-occupation-forces-hoist-israeli-flag-inside-the-aqsa-mosque/

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73 http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/report-ten-million-israelis-violate-the-sanctity-of-buraq-wall/74 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-NO4l8Gzj075 http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/israeli-official-collapse-of-aqsa-mosque-is-imminent/76 http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/expert-warns-aqsa-mosque-entered-very-dangerous-stage/77 Khaled Amareh, Catalogue of Provocations, Al-Ahram Weekly, 15- 21 February 2007, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/832/re63.htm.78 Ibid.79 Sheikh Ikrama Sabri (Mufti of Jerusalem until 2006), Constant Threat, Bitterlemons-Interna-tional, Edition 34 Volume 2 – 2 September 2004, http://www.bitterlemons-international.org/previous.php?opt=1&id=55#223.80 Nadia Abu El-Haj (2001) Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago., p153.81 Friends of Al-Aqsa, Attacks on Masjid al Aqsa, http://tagtag.com/aqsa/attacks_on_masjid_al_aqsa_since_occupation (Last accessed 28 March 2010). 82 Abraham Rabinovich, Tunnel Vision, The Jerusalem Post, 27 September 1996, cited from http://www.templemount.org/tunnel.html (Last accessed 29 March 2010). 83 Nadia Abu El-Haj (2001) Facts on the Ground, p217. 84 Ibid, p225. 85 Abraham Rabinovich, Tunnel Vision, The Jerusalem Post, 27 September 1996, cited from http://www.templemount.org/tunnel.html (Last accessed 29 March 2010).86 Abraham Rabinovich, Tunnel Vision, The Jerusalem Post, 27 September 1996.87 Samer Assad, The Haram al-Sharif Compound and Jerusalem’s Old City, Palestine Centre Information Brief No. 148, 7 March 2007. http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/2229/pid/2254/displaytype/raw4/4AccordingtothePalestinianNegotiationsAffairsDepartm (Last accessed 29 March 2010). 88 Craig Larkin and Micheal Dumper, UNESCO and Jerusalem: Constraints, challenges and opportunities, Editorial for Jerusalem Quarterly, Autumn 2009, Issue 39, p21.89 Reuters, Israeli excavation in Jerusalem stirs Muslim anger, 6 February 2007, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL06809373 90 BBC, Press questions Jerusalem repairs, 7 February 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6338093.stm 91 Marian Houk, Countdown to Armageddon, p98. 92 Reuters, Israeli excavation in Jerusalem stirs Muslim anger, 6 February 2007, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL06809373 93 D. Seidemann. ‘The Events Surrounding the Mughrabi Gate – 2007: A Case Study.’ Unpub-lished Report for Jerusalem Old City Initiative (JOCI) cited in Craig Larkin and Micheal Dumper, UNESCO and Jerusalem: Constraints, challenges and opportunities, Editorial for Jerusalem Quarterly, Autumn 2009, Issue 39, p21.94 UNESCO Executive Board, Special Plenary Meeting: Latest developments in the situation of the world heritage site of the old city of Jerusalem, 13 April 2007, http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/798B329395A05D26852572C6005C5F73.95 Ibid.96 Craig Larkin and Micheal Dumper, UNESCO and Jerusalem, p21.97 Marian Houk, Countdown to Armageddon, p97. 98 Ibid, p91. 99 Israel digs 20 tunnels under Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, Palestine Telegraph, 12 July 2009, http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/1338-israel-digs-20-tunnels-under-al-aqsa-Masjid-in-jerusalem (Last accessed 28 March 2010). 100 James Hider, Settlers dig tunnels around Jerusalem, Times Online, 1 March 2008, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3463264.ece (Last accessed 28 March 2010). 101 Ibid.102 Joseph Krauss, What’s lying behind Jerusalem’s secret tunnel?, Middle East Online, 27 March 2008, http://www.middle-east-online.com/English/?id=25056 (Last accessed 28 March 2010).


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103 http://blogs.news.sky.com/middleeastblog/Post:0c9175d1-eaf3-488b-90de-34023f7d5126 (Last accessed 29 March 2010). 104 Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 16 September 2009, http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5820:weekly-report-on-israeli-human-rights-violations-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory&catid=84:weekly-2009&Itemid=183 (Last accessed 29 March 2010).105 United News Network, Al-Aqsa Masjid is seriously liable to collapse, 3 April 2010, http://www.unnindia.com/english/story.php?Id=6291 (Last accessed 29 March 2010). 106 Press Release of the OIC: http://www.oic-oci.org/topic_detail.asp?t_id=4757 (last visited 23 December 2010)107 Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer: the Judaization of Jerusalem, Contemporary Arab Affairs, January- March 2009, Volume 2 (No.1):122-133. 108 Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p123.109 Ibid, p124.110 Jeff Halper referenced in Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p125.111 Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p125.112 Cited in Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p124.113 B’tselem 2006 cited in Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p126. 114 Dolphin (2006) cited in Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p127.115 Makdisi (2008) cited in Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p128. 116 Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p126. 117 Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p128.118 Ibid, p128.119 Ibid, p129.120 Hamida Ghafour, Digging out East Jerusalem: how Israeli families are taking over, The National Newspaper, 27 March 2010, http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100327/WEEKENDER/703269787/1306 (Last accessed 30 March 2010). 121 Arwa Aburawa, What’s behind the Israeli Separation Wall?, IslamOnline.net, 29 April 2009, http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1239888476545&pagename=Zone-English-ArtCulture%2FACELayout (Last accessed 29 March 2010). 122 Quoted in Valerie Zink, A quiet transfer, p130.123 http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=272382 and http://www.palestine-monitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1130 (Last accessed 30 March 2010). 124 Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, Closures and Checkpoints, 19 April 2009, http://www.jcser.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=10 (Last accessed 30 March 2009). 125 Ibid.126 Bernard Wasserstein, Divided Jerusalem: The Struggle for the Holy City, 2001, Yale Univer-sity Press, New Haven and London, p4.127 Ibid, p49. 128 William J. Hamblinn and David Rolph Seely, Solomn’s Temple: Myth and History, 2007, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, p200.129 CO 733/98 Weizamann to Ormsby-Gore, 1 May 1918 cited in Philip Mattar, ‘The Role of the Mufti of Jerusalem in the Political Struggle over the Western Wall, 1928-9’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 9, Number 1, p1.130 Mary Ellen Lundsten, ‘Wall Politics: Zionist and Palestinian Strategies in Jerusalem, 1928’, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 8, Number 1, (Autumn 1978), p23.131 Wasserstein, supra note 1, p48-9.132 Ibid, p110. 133 Ibid, p125. 134 Quoted in Michael Brecher, Decisions in Israel’s foreign policy, 1974, London, p14 cited in Wasserstein, supra note 1, p125.135 Motti Inbari, ‘Religious Zionism and the Temple Mount Dilemma- Key Trends’, Israeli Studies, Volume12, Number 2, 2007, p32. 136 Ibid, p31-2.137 William J. Hamblinn and David Rolph Seely, Solomn’s Temple: Myth and History, Thames

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and Hudson Ltd, London, 2007, p200.138 Motti Inbari, Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount: Who Will Build the Third Temple?, 2009, State University of New York Press, Albany, p5.139 Ibid, p6.140 Ibid, p4.141 Inbari, supra note 10, p33. 142 Ibid, p35. 143 Inbari, supra note 13, p60.144 Inbari, supra note 10, p30.145 Ibid, p42. 146 Ibid, p29147 Ibid, p30.148 Ghada Hashem Talhami, The Modern History of Islamic Jerusalem: Academic Myths and Propaganda, Middle East Policy, February 2000, Vol 7 (2): 126. 149 Ibid, 127. 150 Ibid. 151 Motti Inbari, Jewish Fundamentalism, p31.152 Ibid, p39.153 Ibid, p37. 154 Ibid, p44.155 Ibid, p31.156 Ibid, p32.157 Ibid, p39.158 Ibid, p42.159 Ibid, p47.160 Ibid.161 Ibid, p79.162 Ibid, p80.163 http://www.templemountfaithful.org/s5759.htm (Last accessed 17 March 2010). 164 Motti Inbari, Jewish Fundamentalism, p80-1.165 Khalid Amayreh, Hardline threat to al-Aqsa Masjid, Al Jazeera English, 28 July 2004, http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2004/07/200841012917823557.html 166 Motti Inbari, Jewish Fundamentalism, p87.167 Ibid, p84-5.168 Ibid, p89.169 Ibid, p93. 170 Ibid, p85-6.171 Ibid, p86.172 Ibid, p97.173 Ibid, p128.174 Ibid, p129.175 Ibid, p128.176 Kobi Nahshoni, Jews urged to visit Temple Mount despite prohibitions, Ynet News, 25 October 2009, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3795054,00.html.177 Khalid Amayreh, Hardline threat to al-Aqsa Masjid, Al Jazeera English, 28 July 2004, http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2004/07/200841012917823557.html 178 Ibid.179 Motti Inbari, Jewish Fundamentalism, p68-9. 180 Ibid, p69. 181 Ibid, p70. 182 Victoria Clark, Allies for Armageddon: The rise of Christian Zionism, 2007, Yale University Press, London, p18. 183 William J. Hamblinn and David Rolph Seely, Solomn’s Temple: Myth and History, 2007, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London.184 William J. Hamblinn and David Rolph Seely, Solomn’s Temple, p199.185 Victoria Clark, Allies for Armageddon, p3. 186 Ibid, p4.


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187 Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism and its impact on justice. Aqsa Journal, October 2000, Volume 3: Number 1, p10.188 Ibid, p9. 189 Victoria Clark, Allies for Armageddon, p5. 190 Ibid, p6. 191 Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism, p11-2.192 Cited in Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism and its impact on justice. Aqsa Journal, October 2000, p12.193 Victoria Clark, Allies for Armageddon, p12.194 Ibid, p5. For more information on how Christian Zionism have influenced US foreign policy with regards to peace plans see Rammy M. Haija, The Armageddon Lobby: Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine, Holy Land Studies, 2006, Vol. 5 (1): p90-93.195 Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism a, p9. 196 Victoria Clark, Allies for Armageddon, p22. 197 Ibid, p67.198 Ibid, p66. 199 Ibid, p72. 200 Ibid, p83.201 Victoria Clark, Allies for Armageddon and Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism, p9. 202 Ibid, p153. 203 Ibid, p161.204 Timothy P. Weber, On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend, Beliefnet.com, http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/End-Times/On-The-Road-To-Armageddon.aspx?p=2 (Last accessed 18 March 2010).205 Stephen Sizer, A Critique of Christian Zionism, 11 March 2009, http://www.stephensizer.com/2009/03/a-critique-of-christian-zionism-tony-higton/ (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 206 Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism , p9. 207 Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionsim: A British Perspective, http://www.christianzionism.org/Article/Sizer02.asp (Last accessed 19 March 2010). 208 Website of the US Church Ministry Among Jewish People, http://www.cmj.org.uk/about (Last accessed 19 March 2010). 209 https://www.cfi.org.uk/aboutus.php (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 210 http://www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com/content/view/13/31/ (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 211 Rammy M. Haija, The Armageddon Lobby: Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine, Holy Land Studies, 2006, Vol. 5 (1): p78.212 Gershom Gorenberg, The end of days: fundamentalism and the struggle for the Temple Mount, 2000, The Free Press, New York, p158.213 Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism, p9-12. 214 Cited in Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism, p12.215 Victoria Clark, Allies for Armageddon, p214.216 Stephen Sizer, Chapter 7: The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem: A Case Study in Political Christian Zionism, 10 May 2004, http://www.cc-vw.org/articles/icejmelisende.htm (Last accessed 20 March 2010)217 Ibid.218 Timothy P. Weber, On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend, Beliefnet.com, http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/End-Times/On-The-Road-To-Armageddon.aspx?p=2 (Last accessed 18 March 2010).219 http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/about/index.php (Last accessed 20 March 2010).220 Victoria Clark, Allies for Armageddon, p231.221 http://www.ifcj.org/site/PageNavigator/eng/about/financial_accountability/finan-cial_statement/222 Profile: Christian Friends of Israel, Jewish Israel, http://www.jewishisrael.com/page/profile-christian-friends-of (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 223 Christians United for Israel website cited from Christians United for Israel Right Web Profile: Institute for Policy Studies, 27 April 2008, http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/

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Christians_United_for_Israel (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 224 Sarah Posner, Book Excerpt- Paster Hagee and Christians United for Israel Push for Armageddon, The Public Eye Magazine, Summer 2008, Volume 23, Number 2. http://public-eye.org/magazine/v23n2/pastor_hagee_christians_united.html (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 225 Ibid.226 Christians United for Israel website cited from Christians United for Israel Right Web Profile: Institute for Policy Studies, 27 April 2008, http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Christians_United_for_Israel (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 227 John Hagee- Right Web Profile, Institute for Policy Studies, 24 April 2008, http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Hagee_John (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 228 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6097362 cited in John Hagee- Right Web Profile, Institute for Policy Studies, 24 April 2008, http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Hagee_John (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 229 John Hagee- Right Web Profile, Institute for Policy Studies, 24 April 2008, http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Hagee_John (Last accessed 20 March 2010). 230 Stephen Sizer, Hal Lindsey (b. 1929) The Father of Apocalyptic Christian Zionism, 11 April 1999, http://www.christianzionism.org/Article/Sizer10.asp (Last accessed 20 March 2010).231 Ibid.232 Ibid.233 Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism, p14.


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