Tensions remain high as Israeli officials plan to rededicate a synagogue 330 meters from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City. The decision to rededicate the building on Monday was condemned as an act of aggression by Palestinian religious officials.So rededicating a building is an "act of aggression" while the stone-throwing and rioting that these same officials are encouraging in the Old City is, apparently, nothing at all.
The lies about the Hurva synagogue are being said by all levels of Palestinian Arab leadership, and it is an object lesson in their real bigotry and goals.
While the Hurva is indeed over 300 meters from the Temple Mount, the Arab press and PalArab religious leaders consistently refer to it as being "tens of meters" away.
The PLO's Ahmed Qurei calls the re-opening of the historic synagogue a "provocation" and warns of (meaning, encourages) a "popular uprising" in its wake. He also claims that Israel will build a new synagogue this evening adjacent to the Al Aqsa mosque.
A member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council called the rededication of the Hurva an "illegal and unacceptable" and claims that it is meant to change Jerusalem's "Islamic and Christian character."
It is abundantly clear that the Palestinian Arab leadership does not want any Jewish presence in the Old City at all, and to them the anomalous 19 years out of the past couple of millennia when it was Judenrein is the status quo that must be adhered to. They follow the anti-semitism of their spiritual and political ancestor, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who strenuously worked to destroy the Jewish character of the city and to inflate the Islamic importance of Jerusalem, a city all but abandoned by the Muslim world at large for centuries.
In other words, they prove every day how bigoted they really are.