New York: On the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av (Tisha B’Av), Jews commemorate the destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem by refraining from eating, bathing, greeting one another, sitting on chairs, and listening to music all signs of mourning. This year, the Ninth of Av fell on Thursday, August 7. The Zionist Organization of America sent a letter that day to every Member of Congress, calling attention to the recent statement by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) that no Jewish Temple in Jerusalem ever existed: “They claim that 2000 years ago they had a Temple. I challenge the claim that this is so” (Kul Al-Arab, August 25, 2000).
The ZOA letter notes that in making this denial, Abu Mazen contradicts not only Hebrew Scriptures but also Christian Scriptures that describe Jesus’ visits to the Temple in Jerusalem and the Jewish rites performed there. Abu Mazen even contradicts the Muslim sources, which explain that the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock were sited on the Temple Mount because the Muslim conquerors of Jerusalem in the 7th century A.D. properly identified the Temple Mount as the location of the Jewish Temples. Moreover, the contemporary historical sources, such as Josephus Flavius’ 1st century A.D. book The Jewish Wars, describe every last detail of the Temple in Jerusalem, and scholarly archaeological journals have published innumerable articles on the Temple remains on the Temple Mount.
The ZOA letter observes that Abu Mazen’s denial of the existence of the Jerusalem Temples is consistent with his loathsome denial of the Holocaust, and together demonstrate that this is an individual possessed by an apparently uncontrollable hatred for Israel and Jews, a hatred so incorrigible as to induce him to deny the patent evidence of history and even the tenets of his own religion, if it will hurt Jews.
The ZOA letter also furnishes 20 other outrageous quotes by Abu Mazen on a range of topics that indicate his objective in negotiations is not necessarily the peaceful co-existence of two states side-by-side.
The letter concludes by asking each Member of Congress, in light of the evidence mustered, to understand that Israel has no partner for peace in Abu Mazen, and to resist efforts to coerce Israel into making concessions to a career terrorist: the co-founder of the bloody Fatah movement, and Arafat’s henchman for the last 40 years.
Click Here to read the full text of the ZOA’s Tisha B’Av letter to Congress.