As the Hamas-Israel war continues in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has resumed its false claim – first propagated in 1929 by Adolf Hitler’s subsequent ally, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, and again and again after that — that that Jews are violently “storming” the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and planning to divide it in time and space between Jewish and Muslim worshipers.
Such claims were also used by the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group to justify the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in which Gazan terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis and wounded of thousands. On that day, another 251 Israelis were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 59 -alive and dead – remain in captivity. It is worth noting that Hamas called its invasion of Israel “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”
Shortly after the October 7 massacre, Hamas published a report highlighting the motives behind the cross-border attack on Israel. According to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, the report, titled “Our Narrative, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,“ said that:
“Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was a necessary step and a natural reaction against Israel’s plans to eliminate the Palestinian cause, seize lands, Judaize the Palestinian lands, and establish complete control over Al-Aqsa Mosque and holy sites.”
Needless to say, Israel has not established complete control over Al-Aqsa Mosque. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan gave total control and management of the mosque to the Jerusalem Waqf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department, an organ of the Jordanian Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Holy Places. An agreement signed in 2013 between the Palestinian Authority and Jordan recognized Jordan’s role in managing the holy sites in Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Last month, tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers converged on the mosque to attend special prayers for the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr feast. In previous years, similar numbers of Muslim worshipers enjoyed unlimited access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This, however, did not stop the PA and Hamas from peddling Husseini’s useful lie that Jews are imposing restrictions on Muslims’ freedom of worship and plotting to control the mosque.
On April 12, the PA’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs inaccurately claimed in a statement that Jews were planning “to storm the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish holidays.” According to the ministry, the Jews’ goal is to “divide the mosque in time and space [between Jews and Muslims] and Judaize the Christian and Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.”
Hamas, for its part, said:
“[Jewish] threats posed to Al-Aqsa Mosque require mobilization and action at all levels to thwart the [Israeli] occupation’s ambitions and systematic plans to impose a new reality at the mosque and expel the Muslims.”
The PA and Hamas were referring to routine visits by Jews to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, where two ancient Jewish temples once stood. Notably, the Jewish visitors do not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque during their outdoor tour of the Temple Mount compound. Moreover, the Islamic Waqf authorities do not ban non-Muslims from visiting the grounds around the mosque, so long as they do not set foot inside the mosque itself.
Over the past decade, however, the PA and Hamas have been deliberately and falsely been exploiting visits by Jews in order to incite Palestinians and other Muslims against Israel and Jews. Peaceful and permitted outdoor tours to the grounds around the Al-Aqsa Mosque are regularly described by the PA and Hamas as violent incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Palestinian campaign of anti-Israel incitement reached its peak in 2015, when PA President Mahmoud Abbas joined the club of falsely accusing Jews of desecrating the mosque:
“We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah… Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah…. The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all ours, and they [Jews] have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We shall not allow them to do so…”
Shortly after Abbas’s threat, Palestinians launched the Knife Intifada, a wave of stabbings and car-ramming attacks that resulted in the murder of 38 Israelis between October 2015 and March 2016.
This was not the first time that Palestinian leaders used a purported threat to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as an excuse to slaughter Jews.
In 2000, the Palestinians launched the Al-Aqsa Intifada also under the false pretext that Israel was planning to seize control of the mosque. The intifada, which mainly consisted of a massive wave of suicide bombings against Israelis, came shortly after a brief and peaceful visit by Israeli politician Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount compound.
A year after the intifada erupted, Marwan Barghouti, a senior official with Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction, described his role in the lead-up to the uprising:
“I knew that the end of September [2000] was the last period [of time] before the explosion, but when Sharon reached the al-Aqsa Mosque, this was the most appropriate moment for the outbreak of the intifada…. The night prior to Sharon’s visit, I participated in a panel on a local television station and I seized the opportunity to call on the public to go to the al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning, for it was not possible that Sharon would reach al-Haram al-Sharif just so, and walk away peacefully. I finished and went to al-Aqsa in the morning…. We tried to create clashes without success because of the differences of opinion that emerged with others in the al-Aqsa compound at the time…. After Sharon left, I remained for two hours in the presence of other people, we discussed the manner of response and how it was possible to react in all the cities and not just in Jerusalem. We contacted all [the Palestinian] factions.”
The Palestinian Authority and Hamas might disagree on many issues, but when it comes to spreading defamation against Israel and Jews, the two parties are invariably in full agreement. Over the past few decades, the claim that Jews are plotting to seize control of the Al-Aqsa Mosque has resulted in the death of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians. PA and Hamas leaders bear full responsibility for the violence and bloodshed.
It is time for the US and other Western countries to impose consequences on Palestinian leaders, especially Mahmoud Abbas and his senior representatives, for spreading falsehoods and libels against Israel and Jews. It is precisely this type of rhetoric that incentivizes Palestinians to carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis and Jews. The message to Palestinian leaders should read: “Stop using the Al-Aqsa Mosque as an excuse to slaughter Jews. The mosque remains intact, and is not facing any threat, despite Palestinian libels and lies.” Failure to comply would result in international donors imposing financial sanctions on the Palestinian leadership.
If anyone is desecrating the mosque, it is those who exploit it to encourage their people to carry out terrorist attacks.
{Reposted from Gatestone Institute}
