Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has expressed its solidarity with Al-Mutawakel Taha, the senior Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Ministry of Information official who recently published an absurd, preposterous anti-Semitic “study” denying Jews’ historical and religious rights and claims to Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the only remnant of the outer retaining wall of the biblical Jewish temples which, other than Temple Mount itself, is Judaism’s holiest site.
The ZOA condemned Abbas and the PA at the time for endorsing and promoting this study.
The PA posted the study on its website, removed it when criticized, including by the Obama administration, then reposted it on the website of the PLO news agency, WAFA.
Taha said he was surprised to learn that his document had been removed from the ministry’s website and the journalists’ syndicate, rejected U.S. and Israeli protests over what it called the “scientific study.” The syndicate said that the “extremist right-wing government in … can’t accept a scientific study written by a Palestinian poet.” The syndicate added that Israel’s position toward the document “exposed its false claim to be democratic.” The journalists called on the U.S. and Europe to condemn Israel for restricting Palestinian freedom of expression and “opposing all that’s outside the narrative of occupation and aggression” (Khaled Abu Toameh, ‘PA journalists support author of Western Wall report,’ Jerusalem Post, December 8, 2010).
According to Taha’s “study,” the Western Wall belongs to Muslims and is an integral part of Al-Aqsa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif (the Islamic term for the Temple Mount complex, meaning the Noble Sanctuary). The “study” claim that, “The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims that it owns this wall, which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel … Al-Buraq Wall is in fact the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque … This wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its destruction …During the British mandate in Palestine, the number of Jews who visited the wall increased to a point where the Muslims felt threatened, and then there was the Al-Buraq Revolution on August 23, 1929, where dozens of Muslims were martyred and a large number of Jews were killed … no Muslim or Arab or Palestinian had the right to give up one stone of Al-Buraq Wall or other religious sites” (Khaled Abu Toameh, ‘Jews have no right to Western Wall, PA “study” says,’ Jerusalem Post, November 22, 2010).
ZOA National Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt said, “As we stated earlier when this study appeared, this little-reported episode sheds additional and important light on the Palestinian eliminationist ideology, which demands that the truth of Jewish history be utterly erased from the biblical land of Israel, in order to further demonize Israel as illegal interlopers. It is nothing less than Jew-hatred and anti-Semitism.
“Now, the PA adds even further confirmation of its hateful ideology. It removed the posting from its website, but simply reposted it on another, related official website and its own Fatah-controlled journalist’s association came up publicly in favor the study. But perhaps none of this should surprise – not only has the PA a long record of Jew-hatred which the ZOA has repeatedly noted and documented, by Mahmoud Abbas himself is the author of a PhD thesis and book of Holocaust denial.
“It is unlikely that the Arab and Muslim worlds will accept Israel’s right to exist as Jewish state for many years, perhaps generations, perhaps ever. But if and when change comes, it will at least in large part start when Palestinians genuinely accept Israel’s legitimacy and cease taking refuge in a falsified, counterfeit history that eliminates the Jewish people from the picture. That is why it is vital that the U.S. and Israel both insist on an end to this Palestinian propaganda of denial and falsification and make further aid and negotiations to the PA conditional on its termination. To do otherwise is to ensure the prolongation of the Arab war on Israel. The Obama Administration and Israel should demand that the PA repudiate this absurd, pernicious study, delete it from all PA-associated websites, and censure its journalists’ syndicate before engaging in peace talks with it.”