The Law Of Unintended Consequences At Work In The Middle East

Inside the streets of walled old Jerusalem city.

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday’s Jerusalem Post reported on the next step now that the Palestinian Authority has been admitted to UNESCO as a member state.

The article reports:

“We will take Israel to court for systematically destroying and forging Arab and Islamic culture in Jerusalem,” said Hatem Abdel Qader, former PA minister for Jerusalem affairs, after the UNESCO vote.

PA Minister of Tourism Khuloud Daibes alleges that Israel’s renovations of Jerusalem’s Old City walls and its intention to replace the crumbling Mughrabi Bridge at the southern entrance to the Temple Mount are hostile attempts to “change the Islamic and Arabic character of the city.”

There seems to be some distortion of history here–Jerusalem has been central to Jewish history since the time of King David and his son Solomon. Jerusalem did not become significant as an Islamic holy site until the rule of the Umayyads (661-750 CE). The Dome of the Rock was built in 688-91 CE on the spot where Jewish Temples had stood.

The article further reports:

If this weren’t so funny, it would be outrageous. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Israel set the international gold standard for unimpeded religious worship in Jerusalem, and for painstaking preservation of Muslim and Christian holy sites and archeological sites across Israel. In civilized and professional circles, Israel is recognized as having contributed enormously to the excavation, study and preservation of Holy Land historical sites and relics.

By contrast, there is no Arab or Islamic country in the Middle East where Christians or Jews can freely operate religious institutions. Under Palestinian Authority and Hamas rule, Christians in the West Bank and Gaza have been hounded, terrorized and driven out. Christian Bethlehem is, effectively, no more. The Church of Nativity was defiled by Palestinian Muslim terrorists who turned it into an armed refuge in 2002. Churches in Gaza have been bombed and burned. Can you imagine how the churches of Jerusalem might fare under Palestinian rule?

Please follow the link to the Jerusalem Post story. The article details some of the destruction of antiquities the Muslims have engaged in on the Temple Mount in order to erase the Jewish roots of the site.

Unfortunately, we have opened the door to a group of terrorists who want to rewrite history and obliterate the Jewish people from the Middle East.

 

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