Tensions nothing to do with anything that Israel is doing or not doing

IT IS “chutzpah” to claim clashes between Palestinians and Israeli authorities are the result of Arab fears of losing sacred ground.

The Arab domination and colonisation of Israel is 1500 years old. Referring to Arabs as “Palestinians” only goes back to 1964, when the KGB created the PLO.

The Temple Mount has been holy Jewish ground for over 3 000 years. King Solomon built his temple on the site of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son, Isaac, in 956BC. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586BC.

The second temple stood from 516BC until the Romans wiped it out in 70AD.

The Muslim conquerors built the Dome of the Rock atop the ruins of the Second Jewish Temple in 691. It was a shrine, not a mosque. The al-Aqsa Mosque was built at the edge of the Mount, called by Muslims the Haram esh-Sharif, in 705, 70 years after Muhammad’s death.

During Transjordan’s illegal occupation of Judea and Samaria, which they named the West Bank, no Jew could enter. With Israel’s victory in the Six-day War, all ethnicities controlled their own holy sites. Israel gave the Waqf civilian control of the Mount. Everyone could visit, including into the Dome of the Rock. Al-Aqsa was for Muslims only. Recently, the Waqf created a women’s mosque in the Dome, so it is now exclusively Muslim.

Tensions this month have nothing to do with Passover or Easter or anything Israel is doing or not doing. It’s Ramadaan, always a good time to drag out the al-Aqsa libel, a 100-yearold claim that Jews were destroying the mosque in order to build a third temple.

It’s the perfect occasion to riot, to terrorise and to remind the infidels they will always be “dhimmi”. Hamas and the PA compete to impress the Arab street. LEN BENNETT, AUTHOR OF “UNFINISHED WORK” | Ottawa, Canada