Jews on Temple Mount (file)
Jews on Temple Mount (file)Reuters

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has published a collection of recent declarations on official PA television that the Jewish Temple never existed, that the "Palestinians" predated the Jews in Jerusalem by "centuries," and the like.

The latest posting by the internationally-known media watchdog organization PMW does not attempt to refute the claims, but simply brings them to the attention of the world. For instance, it notes that PA Deputy Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Salwa Hadib recently stated that "the Palestinian people has been present in it [Jerusalem] for thousands of years... centuries before the Jewish religion." This, despite the fact that no Palestinian Arab entity ever existed before, at the earliest, the year 1949, when Jordan illegally took over Judea and Samaria and had to categorize the people living there.

It is true, of course, that people lived in Jerusalem even before Jews – but they have no national, ethnic or other connection with the Arabs living today in the Land of Israel.

On another front, a PA TV host agreed with a political-Islam researcher who stated on PA TV that the Zionist goal is to "find the Temple" while destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The researcher claimed Israel has not found "even one remnant" that proves the existence of the Temple.

What is particularly fascinating about this groundless claim is that even Jerusalem's Muslim Waqf itself does not agree with it! Back in 1925, the Supreme Moslem Council – i.e., the Waqf, which has overseen Temple Mount activities on behalf of Islam for hundreds of years - boasted proudly that the site is none other than that of Solomon's Temple. A copy of the booklet in which this claim is made is in the possession of the Jerusalem-based Temple Institute. On page 4, the Waqf states that the Mount's "identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute." It then quotes the Biblical book of Samuel II indicating that it is also the spot, "according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the L-rd...'"

PA TV often refers to the "alleged" Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The following PMW-cited quote from this past May mentions that the Jews "fabricated" a fake Jewish name for Jerusalem - the City of David – to fulfill their plans to "Judaize and erase Arab and Muslim antiquities through tunnel excavations and theft of antiquities... Through these evil projects, the Israeli occupation seeks to restore the alleged Kingdom of David and to build his palace there, in order to achieve its evil goal: Full control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque and building the alleged Temple in its place." 

No mention has been made on PA TV of the above-mentioned Waqf booklet in which the Jewish Temple is mentioned as fact. The pamphlet also makes mention, on page 16, of the underground area in the south-east corner of the Mount, which is refers to as Solomon's Stables.  "Little is known for certain of the history of the chamber itself," the guide reads. "It dates probably as far back as the construction of Solomon's Temple. According to Josephus, it was in existence and was used as a place of refuge by the Jews at the time of the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 A.D."