Petra, the official news agency of the the Jordanian government, recently published a report accusing Israel of “Judaizing” Jerusalem and casting doubt on Jewish history in the Land of Israel. The report also referred to Israelis working in the Old City as “Israeli occupation forces.”
The language was used in reporting excavations in the Old City. Previous excavations led to the restoration of the Western Wall tunnels, a series of tunnels under the Old City in which visitors can see the ruins of Jerusalem as it was thousands of years earlier.
IMRA contacts Petra
Petra wrote, “The Israeli occupation forces started a large scale judaization project... related to the alleged temple.” The agency also reported that a Jerusalem Muslim group “urged Islamic, Arab and Palestinian move to save Al Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem from the judaization plans” [sic].
Calls to “save Al Aksa” have previously led to days of violent riots in and around Jerusalem.
The Petra report was noted by the Independent Media Review Analysis (IMRA), which expressed concern over the harsh language and the denial of the Holy Temple, noting the possibility that it reflects the views of the Jordanian government. Israel and Jordan have signed a peace treaty, but relations between the countries have not always been warm.
IMRA contacted Petra, which replied that it did not speak in the name of the government, but noted that Jordanian media have always used the term “alleged” to refer to the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. “All followers of Islam” question the existence of the Temples, a Petra worker stated.
In addition to literary sources such as detailed descriptions of the First Temple found in the Bible (Kings I, Chronicles, and the Prophets) and the records of the Second Temple in Josephus Flavius, archaelogical finds have made the questioning of the existence of the Temples a non starter.