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If Jews Have No History in Jerusalem, Then Neither Do Christians

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JERUSALEM, Israel At a press conference Monday in Ramallah, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, speaking in English, told journalists Palestinians believe in tolerance and co-existence.

His comments came in response to a question about a recent UNESCO resolution that called Israel the "occupying power" on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, implying that Jews had no history there. It's a position Israel found very intolerant. After the resolution, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu protested the historical omission and invited all U.N. personnel in Israel to a seminar on Jerusalem's Jewish history. The U.N. declined the invitation.  

The Temple Mount, home to two consecutive Jewish Temples during biblical times, is known in Arabic as the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and is currently occupied by two Muslim shrines the al-Aksa Mosque and golden Dome of the Rock.

With regard to the resolution, Hamadallah was asked if he really believed that Jews have no history in Jerusalem. If Jews have no history in Jerusalem, it affects Christians too since the roots of Christianity are Jewish.     

"We as Palestinians, we believe in tolerance," Hamdallah replied. "We here – Christians, Muslims and Samaritans [he did not mention Jews] – actually we live as one family."

Yet one part of that family is shrinking. Christians have steadily been leaving the Palestinian areas (in contrast to Israel, whose Christian population is growing) for decades.

Bethlehem is the most striking example. Since taking over the city in 1995, the P.A. embarked on a plan to Islamize the birthplace of Jesus by changing the municipal boundaries and incorporating 30,000 Muslims who lived nearby. That move shifted the demographics, changing the Christian majority to a minority.

Hamadallah also refused to answer a question about Palestinian incitement to violence against Israel over the Temple Mount, instead blaming Israel for violence against Jewish visitors over the past 10 months.

Hamdallah said it would be dangerous to transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious one, but he refused to answer if the Palestinians weren't already doing that by pushing for resolutions on the Temple Mount.

"We believe in all religions and we believe that Jerusalem should be open for all," he said, indicating that included Jews. "We believe in all prophets."

Muslims consider biblical figures, like Abraham, Moses, King David, King Solomon and even Jesus to be Muslim prophets.

Netanyahu said the UNESCO resolution ignored "the unique historic connection of Judaism to the Temple Mount, where two temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years."  He charged the U.N. with attempting to rewrite history.

France initially voted for the resolution, later backtracking publicly on its support of the UNESCO decision. French Prime Minister Mauel Valls called the vote "a mistake" and said France would never deny the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.

 

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About The Author

Julie Stahl
Julie
Stahl

Julie Stahl is a correspondent for CBN News in the Middle East. A Hebrew speaker, she has been covering news in Israel full-time for more than 20 years. Julie’s life as a journalist has been intertwined with CBN – first as a graduate student in Journalism, then as a journalist with Middle East Television (METV) when it was owned by CBN from 1989-91, and now with the Middle East Bureau of CBN News in Jerusalem since 2009. As a correspondent for CBN News, Julie has covered Israel’s wars with Gaza, rocket attacks on Israeli communities, stories on the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and the