Arabs can't stand Jews wanting to pray

Jews are planning to go near their holiest site and pray on a major Jewish holiday.

Naturally, this is making Arabs furious.

From Ma'an:

Israeli police have warned against demonstrations against a planned settler march ending in Al-Aqsa Mosque where prayers will be performed, sources said Tuesday.

Settlers have said they intend to enter and pray in the Haram Ash-Sharif compound where the Al-Aqsa Mosque sits on Thursday.

Palestine News Network puts things a bit differently:

Israeli extremist organizations are seeking to enter the courtyards of the Al Aqsa Mosque on Thursday.

This latest threats comes within the context of an outright onslaught on the Palestinian heritage, culture and population of the city.

In response the Palestine Liberation Organization has called for Thursday as a day “to defend Jerusalem.” A spokesperson at the PLO told PNN this afternoon that protecting the Mosque is of utmost import. It is hoped that Palestinians will form a ring around the Muslim holy site to protect it from further damage.

Now you can understand the rest of the Ma'an article:

Israeli police also handed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s Consult for Jerusalem Affairs Hatem Abdul Kader an official warning that accused him of intending to create a public disturbance by gathering Palestinians to demonstrate against a planned settler march.

Police said Abd Al-Kader was planning a campaign “of incitement” whose planned actions would “enflame the situations in Jerusalem” and said he would be held accountable for any mishaps.

Abd Al-Kader responded to the warning by issuing a statement saying the warnings should rather be sent out to the settlers.

The police said they would study the case and may only allow the group to visit the mosque and prevent prayers in the area.

Abd Al-Kader said he would welcome any decision to prevent the settlers from praying at the holy Muslim site. He stressed that he was only concerned about the holiness of the space and wanted to avoid any violence in the area.

So Jews want to go to the Temple Mount to peacefully pray. Arabs say that doing that is unacceptable incitement and they will act violently as a result. And then they say that they only care about the holiness of the area and want to avoid violence?

You may recall that in 2000, these same peaceful prayerful Muslims threw bricks from their holy area onto praying Jews below, claiming that the Jews and Ariel Sharon started the violence - by "provocatively" yet peacefully visiting the Temple Mount. And it appears that they are just itching to start a new intifada using the same hollow pretext.

As if more evidence is needed for the sheer bigotry of the current "moderate" Palestinian Arab leadership, earlier the PA cabinet condemned Jews going on the Temple Mount, and added this interesting comment:

Such [provocative acts], according to Palestinian cabinet, are attempts to divide the Al-Aqsa compound and impose a de facto as what they have already done in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in the southern West Bank. These procedures will end up in escalation in the whole region killing the peace process.

Reading ever so slightly between the lines, this means that the current Palestinian Arab government believes that Jews do not have the right to pray at their second-holiest site, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron! The fact that Jews pray there today is considered unacceptable but unfortunately necessary for the time being - but if given a chance the "moderate" anti-semites in the PA would kick every Jew out of Hebron forever and not even let them visit!

Is Muslim prayer ever considered incitement, or is it exclusively Jewish prayer - especially when the Jewish claim to every holy site pre-dates Islam itself by over a thousand years?

The vicious Arab bigotry needs to be exposed for what it is. It is not a defense against violence; it is an incitement to violence and an attempt to minimize any Jewish connection to the Holy Land.

It is also worth recalling that Arabs do not believe that Jews have the right to pray at the Western Wall either. They claim that this is also holy Muslim land and if the PA had its way, Jews would be forbidden from all of Jerusalem. This is not exaggeration; this is what they are demanding. They will tell the West that they will "compromise" and allow Jews to have access to their holy places, but they have said that before - in 1949, Jordan's armistice agreement with Israel included "free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives." Needeless to say, Jordan reneged on that agreement as soon as it took control of eastern Jerusalem. There is nothing to indicate that the PA, the institution that the West loves to pour billions of dollars into, would act exactly the same way if given the chance.

To deny Jews the right to pray at their holiest site is pure anti-semitism, pure bigotry. No amount of doubletalk about "sanctity" or "peace" or "status quo" can change that naked fact.

What scares the Arabs more than anything is when Jews in Israel start acting like Jews...because they know that their own Islamic claims are but a shadow compared to the Jewish claims to the land.

And this is why the idea of Jews praying on the Temple Mount makes them so upset.