European observers who are considering coming to Jerusalem to “supervise” the demolishing of the Shepherd Hotel in the Shimon HaTzaddik-Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood would do well to think twice about making the journey, says director of the Ateret Cohanim Foundation, Mati Dan – otherwise they could find themselves facing some uncomfortable facts about their past, not to mention the target of a vigorous effort by Ateret Cohanim to have them deported for trying to incite riots.
“The only thing these people have to say to the Jews of Jerusalem is to beg for our forgiveness for what they have done to us for thousands of years, culminating in the Holocaust,” Dan tells Israel National News in an interview. “Before anything else, they need to give an honest accounting to themselves, to us, and to the world, and certainly not involve themselves in telling Jews how and where to build in their homeland.”
On Monday, as bulldozers began demolishing the old hotel, on a site purchased by Dr. Irving Moskowitz of the U.S., the British Independent newspaper published a confidential report that quoted 25 consul-generals of European countries stationed in Jerusalem as calling for an international observer force to “keep an eye” on Jewish actions in Arab and mixed neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
The report, quoted by the paper, states that “Israel has left Palestinian neighborhoods ever more isolated” and “is actively pursuing its annexation by systematically undermining the Palestinian presence in the city,” by using “legal and practical means.” The Consuls-General, who are in essence EU ambassadors to the Palestinian Authority, called for an official European presence in Jerusalem, “to ensure EU intervention when Palestinians are arrested or intimidated by Israeli authorities for peaceful cultural, social or political activities.”
But Dan does not intend to roll out the welcome mat for these observers if they show up – quite the opposite. “They have no business here, and we will do everything legally possible to prevent them from interfering with Jewish building in our capital. How ironic it is,” he said, “that the very people whose policies guaranteed the deaths of 6 million Jews just a few decades ago, are now in a rush to defend against the home of Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the great Arab ally of the Nazis.”
Husseini, who over nearly three decades inspired and organized pogroms, riots, and murders of Jews, had drawn up with the Nazis plans for the enslavement and elimination of the Jewish residents of the Land of Israel when the Nazis invaded and conquered the country. “Husseini was the owner of the hotel, which now legally belongs to Jewish owners, as has been proven in court numerous times. In other words, the Europeans would rather take the side of the modern-day persecutors of Jews, the spiritual heirs of Husseini, instead of apologizing for what they have done to us,” says Dan. “Such people have no place here.”
So far, the government has not responded to the latest attempt by the EU to pressure Israel into halting building at the site, and Dan hopes things will remain that way. If the EU does try to poke its nose into Israel's building policy, Dan says he is ready for them. "We won't rest until the government deports them, and sends them back to Europe, where they belong."