The director of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem has told a Lebanese newspaper that Israeli reports of archaeological finds from the First Temple period are baseless. Azzam al-Hitiv charged that Israel timed the reports to try to prove a Jewish link to the site at the same time the Palestinian Authority has demanded control of the Old City.

Muslims have been conducting a campaign that has escalated in the past two years to convince the world that there is no Jewish connection with the Old City of Jerusalem. They argue that the Western Wall (Kotel) was a hitching post for Muslim horses. Their history also claims that the "binding of Isaac" in the Bible actually refers to Ishmael.