The P.A. rewrites history … again
Cave of the Patriarchs
Palestinian Authority (P.A.) officials to UNESCO are applying to have the Cave of the Patriarchs – the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah – named as a Palestinian Heritage Site. Last year UNESCO declared that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb were in fact “Palestinian,” stating “any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law, the UNESCO Conventions, and the United Nations and Security Council resolutions.”
The P.A.’s move to gain recognition of the Cave of the Patriarch as a Palestinian “heritage” site is likely fueled by their desire to prevent Jews from visiting and worshipping at the holy site.
The Palestinian mayor of Hebron, Khaled Osaily, declared that the ancient Jewish holy site is “a mosque!” He then retorted, “You don’t have to be an architect to see it! Will you allow me to pray in a synagogue or a church?”
To answer his question of whether I would “allow” a Muslim or Christian to join the prayer service at my synagogue, the answer is yes, of course. Just go to the Western Wall and you will see all types of Jews and non-Jews praying to God, each one with their unique understanding of God.
From the mayor’s statements we see that the P.A. is seeking to deprive Jews of any attachment to their ancestral and religious sites through turning these ancient Jewish sites into Palestinian Heritage Sites at UNESCO. By doing so, the P.A. is attempting to rewrite a history in which the Jewish people’s ancient past in the Holy Land is erased.
This phenomenon is not new. Today there is a mosque at nearly every historical Jewish site in Israel. The Temple Mount, Samuel the Prophet’s Gravesite, and Rachel’s Tomb have all been turned into mosques with the intent of eradicating over 3,000 years of Jewish history in Israel. The P.A.’s attempt to turn Judaism’s holiest sites into their heritage sites, as well as UNESCO’s history of aiding these attempts, must be stopped.
Read More » Comments (12) »Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 at 5:19 PM | Amichai Farkas
Abbas rewrites history
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, the supposed “moderate” voice among the leaders of the Palestinian people, penned an op-ed in the New York Times yesterday about “The Long Overdue Palestinian State.”
In the piece, he recalls being a 13-year-old Palestinian boy ousted from his home in Safed and forced to flee to Syria with his family after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Referring to his younger self in the third person, he writes, “Sixty-three years ago, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was forced to leave his home in the Galilean city of Safed and flee with his family to Syria … Though he and his family wished for decades to return to their home and homeland, they were denied that most basic of human rights.”
Shortly after this piece was released, Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for The Atlantic, pointed out some discrepancies between this version of Abbas’ boyhood and stories that have published previously.
This statement creates a couple of impressions. One subtle impression is that a certain group of people can’t seem to help but oppress little boys from the Galilee. The second, clearer impression that it was the Zionist army that “forced” Abbas’s family to leave Safed. This does not seem to be true. On other occasions, Abbas has stated that his family left Safed out of a general fear that Jews would seek “retribution” against the Arabs of Safed for an earlier slaughter of Jews by Arabs. Here is his 2007 recounting of his family’s self-exile from Safed:
When Abbas was 13, “we left on foot at night to the Jordan River… Eventually we settled in Damascus… My father had money, and he spent his money methodically. After a year, when the money ran out, we began to work. “People were motivated to run away… They feared retribution from Zionist terrorist organizations – particularly from the Safed ones. Those of us from Safed especially feared that the Jews harbored old desires to avenge what happened during the 1929 uprising [Muslim pogroms instigated by the Grand Mufti…
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Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 1:57 PM | David Kuner
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