Palestinians Want Jerusalem's Very Jewish Western Wall: Working on UNESCO

Palestinians Want Jerusalem's Very Jewish Western Wall: Working on UNESCO

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                             

The Palestinians are now trying to say that Jews have no history to the Western Wall aka Wailing Wall in Jerusalem where Jews go to pray.  They have a lot of Arab support in the UN and are presenting their own version of the history of Jerusalem.  They recognize only the Islamic connection to the Holy City, City of David, Jerusalem.
                                                                               

View of Western Wall lower right and above is Temple Mount with Mosque in Center

These Arabs are trying to make out that the Western Wall is part of Islam's al-Aqsa Mosque.  To do this, they have presented a terrible resolution, showing they know nothing about history pre-Islam's Mohammed.  "The proposal is contained in a draft resolution to the executive board of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The agency formally designates cultural treasures around the world."  The Palestinians got 6 states behind this proposal;  "Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates."  I am truly surprised at Egypt for doing this since they are at peace with Israel.  This is a terrible thing to propose to a friend.  I suppose we should claim the pyramids  in Egypt being Jewish slaves built them, then, and a few cities.  

Here are some facts they are repressing in everyone's minds that they administer.
                                                                       

. After 400 years of slavery in Egypt, Moses came along in 1351 BCE and took the Israelites out of bondage and headed for their old home in Canaan.  After 40 years of wandering,  they arrived in 1271BCE when Moses died and was buried outside the land and then Joshua took over.
                                                                           

Joshua, fighting to possess Canaan

The 12 tribes of Jacob, aka Israel, were told where to settle using Moses's plan, administered by Joshua.  650,000 had started on the Exodus.
The 1st census taken showed 603,550 people
The 2nd census taken showed 601,730 people  with a loss of 1,820 from the  40 year march.
                                                                             

Joshua, Judge of Israel

The people were first ruled by Judges, Yehoshua- Joshua of the tribe of Ephriam, in about 1270 BCE  being the first. He was followed by 15 more;   Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, and Jair.                                      

Deborah, a Judge

Then they had the Ammonite rule of Jephitah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson, Eli and Samuel, all Jewish judges.
                                                                           

King Saul died fighting the Philistines and so did his 3 sons.

The people saw that their neighbors had kings, so clamoured and insisted on being governed by one, also.  Saul was chosen as the first king in the 1000s BCE, son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin.  The Israelites were in danger militarily from the Philistines and Ammonites.  Samuel, a judge and prophet, had chosen Saul.  They had a victory and defended themselves against the Philistine danger and fought off the Moabites, Ammonites, and Arameans.
                                                                           

The next king was David who ruled from 1010 BCE to 970 BCE.  He was the youngest son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah, and was born in Bethlehem.  He had been Saul's armor-bearer and became Saul's son in law by marrying his daughter, Michal.
                                                                             

David's son, Solomon was the next king from 961-920 BCE and his mother was Bathsheba.  Politically, Solomon was called the King of Peace and was able to build the 1st Temple.  He had 1,000 wives and concubines.  Solomon was able to rest due to his father's achievements to protect the realm which extended from Egypt to the Euphrates and was the most energetic in the entire region.  Less war meant they were able to develop in the cultural sphere of the arts of historiograph, parables, and elegant writing developed as well as several biblical works such as Song of Songs, Ecclesiates, Psalm 72.  Solomon was widely known for his wisdom.  Who hasn't heard the story of how he decided between 2 women as to who a baby belonged?  He used psychology.

When Solomon died in 920 BCE, the southern half of Israel broke off to create Judah from which Jews take their name.  They kept Jerusalem as their capital while Israel took Samaria.  Israel chose an Ephraimite to be king, Jeroboam, while Judah had as king a son of King Solomon,Rehoboam.  Both started serving in 933 BCE.
                                                                           

Israelites being led away by Assyrians.  Israel lost territory of land east of Jordan River, Galilee, and Philistia, Tyre, Moab and Edom became Assyrian provinces.  Shalmaneser took Samaria and Sargon captured it in 721 BCE

Assyria attacked Israel in 722-721 BCE and led Israelites into captivity.  Hoshea was the king at the time, and his reign ended in 721 BCE.
                                                                         

 Sargon annexed the country, and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media.  He replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.

He was the last king of Israel which had lasted from 1271 BCE with the take-over of the land as dictated to do by G-d to 721 BCE, a total of  550 years.  Remember that the USA is only 239 years old.  If we even counted from 1620 when the first pilgrim ship, the Mayflower landed, it would only be 395 years of being on the North American land.                                                                          

Nebuchadnezzar

   As for Judah,  they were able to have another 124 years of happiness before the Babylonians with their king Nebuchadnezzar came along in 597 BCE and also carted away Jews into captivity.  They did more damage in 586 BCE by repeating their actions.  .Judah's last king wasZedekiah whose reign ended in 586 BCE.  Counting Israel's days of which Judah was part of and adding on these 124 more years, this gives the Judeans or Jews,  the land lasting 674 years of continuance- but not ending the time Jews live here.  That has been going on with a smaller Jewish population that has been under many countries' powers, but hasn't turned into another county such as Palestine.
                                                                             

Working on Temple in Jerusalem after destruction

The Temple was rebuilt and called the 2nd Temple from 538 to 515 BCE.
                                                                                 

General Bar Kokhba; Bar Kosiba Simeon, nephew of Rabbi Eleazar of Modiin, descendant of King David

  Palestine was simply the name of the land that the Romans gave it after fighting against theJewish General Bar Kokhba for 3 years from 132 to 135 CE, the longest battle they had had.  They were so angry about it that they referred to the land from then on by the name ofPalaestina, denoting the land of the Jewish enemy, the Philistines. Herodatus as called itPalaistine, and Palestine was the name the Ottoman Empire referred it as for 400 years, ending their hold when they lost WWI in 1917 as their entire empire was lost except Turkey.                                                            

                                                                                   
However, the tribe of Judah, the largest of the 12 tribes,  was filled in with the tribe of Benjamin, and they all were able to live and continue on the land.  The Romans came along and occupied the land in 63 BCE.  They put in their choice of  leaders from the Jewish population, and Herodwas chosen as king.
                                                                                 

70 CE, destruction of 2nd Temple and Jerusalem, scattering of Jews who were kept out by Romans

 The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned the 2nd Temple down in 70 CE, 133 terrible years after entering.  They had ruled with an iron hand, hanging thousands of Jews on crosses for minor infringements of their power and rule, including the Christian leader, Jesus.                                                        

Assigned areas where 12 tribes of Jacob (Israel) lived in Eretz Yisrael

Eretz Yisrael, The Jewish Homeland  itself, had been the home of the Jewish people from the time of Joshua entering in 1271 BCE till 70 CE, a total of 1,291 years, and the Palestinians are trying to say that we have no historical claim on the Western Wall, a wall attached to the Temple Mount.
                                                                             

2nd Temple of Solomon

The Western Wall/ Wailing Wall, or Kotel Maaravi, is part of the wall that was around Herod's Temple which was still standing in the Old City of Jerusalem so near the 2nd Temple, built  by the returnees from Babylon from  538 to 515 BCE, 23 years of rebuilding .
                                                                             

 The 5 lower courses, each over 3 feet high, date back from the time of King Herod (ruled from 73 BCE to 4 BCE), son of an Idumean father named Antipater  and a Nabatean mother named Cypros, and appointed by the Roman Senate.  The Romans allowed him to handle internal affairs but not foreign policy.
                                                                                   

Herod

  The wall continues over 60 feet underground.  He had rebuilt  the Temple in Jerusalem on a magnificent scale and erected the 2 new cities of Sebaste and Caesarea.
                                                                                 

                                                                               

Where Jews go first in Jerusalem; to the Wall

 However, he was not a beloved king by the Jewish people.  The Jews were still attached to their former Hasmonean rulers that had been ousted.  Taxation was most heavy because of Herod's extravagance and because of Mark Antony demanding large sums from his protege.  Herod was known to murder his rivals  and even had his own wife, Mariamne, murdered along with their 2 sons, Alexander and Aristobulus and his firstborn, Antipater. He had learned well from the Romans.
                                                                               

Because it is close to the Temple Mount which holds the Jewish Holy of Holies of the 2nd Temple, this part of the wall was regarded as sacred as far back as the Talmudic Period.  Since the 10th century, regular services were held before it.  As the area in front of the Western Wall was Moslem property, a serious dispute broke out between Jews and Moslem in 1929, when the British were holding the mandate for Palestine.  Rioting broke out and Moslems were killing Jews.

Then in 1931, a special commission of the League of Nations regulated the rights of the parties.  From 1948, Jews were cut off from the Western Wall, which was under Jordanian control since their King Abdullah confiscated 80% of the Jewish Homeland and England allowed it to happen.  This happened despite a paragraph in the Israel-Jordan 1949 Armistice Agreement affirming Jewish right of access.  
                                                                                     
From 1948, Jews could not visit their wall until they had won the 1967 Six Day War.  Jordan had teamed up with other Arab countries against little Israel so lost that section of Jerusalem.
                                                                           

1967-Dancing in front of Western Wall in joy

 The Wall has been since then under Jewish sovereignty for the 1st time since the 2nd Temple Period.  On Shavuot 1967, the 1st day the Wall could be visited by the public, 200,000 people went there, and since then is a focal point for Jews from all over the world to visit and pray.  Finally, East Jerusalem, the part Jordan had held till the 1967 War, was reunified in June 1967 with West Jerusalem.  They are now under one mayor.

As for any Islamic connection the Arabs have to East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, this is what happened.  During the siege of Jerusalem during the Roman war, the 2nd Temple served as a center of military activity, and was destroyed by the conquering Romans in 70 CE.  A Roman Temple was later built on the site over it..  Since Mohammad died in 632 CE and his men spread out to conquer the world and spread Islam, a mosque, al Harim ash -Sherif,  has stood there where the 2nd Temple had stood and was built by Caliph Abd al-Malik around the year 738 CE to replace the temporary structure set up by Caliph Omar a century earlier, called  the Mosque of Omar/Dome of the Rock.. Supposedly Mohammad flew there on his flying horse before he died to see the mosque.   Omar was the 2nd caliph and ruled from 634 to 644.  It was during his reign that Palestine and Syria were conquered, and also Mesopotamia.  On his orders, most of the Jews were expelled from northern Arabia.  That's it.  That is the Islamic connection to Jerusalem's Temple Mount.  That's why Moshe Dayan was nice enough to let the Jordanian religious leader have dominion over their mosque site.

Resource:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/world/middleeast/arab-proposal-to-un-over-western-wall-stirs-new-concern.html?_r=0
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City_(Jerusalem)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(63_BC)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/palname.html
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
facts about israel by Division of information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem

The erosion of Holocaust memory

The erosion of Holocaust memory

IIsiPPho

My grandson's school group at Warsaw Ghetto monument My grandparents and many members of my family were exterminated by the Nazis. I would probably also have perished had my parents not had the foresight of leaving Antwerp when I was a young infant on what was probably the last boat to sail to Australia before the outbreak of war. Like survivors, those of us whose families were murdered by the Nazis retain the memory of the Holocaust as part of our DNA. Indeed, in most cases this also applies to our children, who share the sensitivities of their parents. But today, 70 years later, for our grandchildren, most of whom were deprived of the opportunity of hearing their families agonize over memories, the relevance of the Holocaust will fade unless there is a conscious effort to convey it within the framework of their history. The extent to which Holocaust commemoration is maintained by future Jewish generations will largely be determined by the educational approach and curriculum provided in the Israeli school system. We should be under no illusions. The so-called Holocaust commemoration in Europe and other Western countries is a sham. In most cases it trivializes the Holocaust by linking it to other mass murders. In fact, commemoration has become so broad and universal that the words “Jew” and “anti-Semitism” are not even mentioned in the European Union’s lengthy call to its constituents to engage in Holocaust remembrance. If Holocaust awareness truly existed, it would have been inconceivable for the current anti-Semitic tsunami to have swept through the continent of Europe, which was soaked with the blood of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. In fact, a survey of adults in 101 countries reveals that only 54% had ever heard of the Holocaust, and a large proportion of these considered it a myth. With the actual number of survivors dramatically diminishing, Holocaust deniers have proliferated and indeed today there is a growing campaign, spearheaded by Islamic anti-Semites, promoting Holocaust denial. As Jews, I believe that it is our obligation to ensure that this dark chapter of our history is commemorated and studied by future Jewish generations. This is not merely to honor our martyrs but to appreciate the contrast between the Jewish people today, which, with the revival of nationhood, can defend itself, and the powerlessness of those dark years when the world stood by as we were being murdered. If we follow the double standards and bias currently leveled against us, particularly at the United Nations, often with the support or indifference of the Europeans, we must appreciate how fortunate we are today that we are able to rely on our own defenses. There are some, including far-left Israelis, who seek to scale down or even cancel Holocaust commemoration within Israel on the spurious grounds that it is exploited to create an environment of Jewish victimhood and as a means of extorting money and political favors from European countries. This would be disastrous because it is imperative that future generations understand what happened to their European ancestors and realize that the state in which they live cannot be taken for granted. As we commemorate our Exodus from Egyptian slavery to freedom, so we are obliged to remind ourselves how, after 2,000 years of exile and immediately in the wake of the most barbaric genocide, we revived Jewish nationhood in the State of Israel. My grandson returned a few weeks ago from his school’s journey to the Polish death camps. Even though his family was already sensitive to the Holocaust, the visit had a profound impact on him. I was therefore deeply saddened to read that the principal of Tel Aviv’s prestigious elite secular Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, Dr. Zeev Dagani, proposes canceling annual trips to the Nazi death camps. He claims that “there are many youth who are not emotionally built to grasp the reality of the horror. It is too much for them and I think it is too early to send 16- and 17-year-olds to trips to Poland. It is a trip which requires emotional and intellectual maturity.” The reality is that if adequate education is provided and the tours are led by well-informed guides, the results have proven to be extraordinary and have major beneficial impact on the participants, not only in terms of comprehending the Holocaust, but equally so in relation to their understanding and appreciation of the Jewish state. There is a valid complaint that the escalating costs prevent some students from participating. This is something the government should be reviewing with the aim of providing subsidies to enable all students who wish to participate. It would prove to be a worthwhile long-term educational investment. Of course, it is sickening to hear of occasional groups visiting a death camp and engaging in drinking parties in the evening or interspersing their visit with a shopping day in Warsaw. Under such circumstances, it would undoubtedly be preferable to cancel such trips. But most trips are well-planned and have immense educational impact, highlighting the emergence of a Jewish state like a phoenix from the ashes of the Holocaust – something that no classroom study course can replicate. I listened in awe as my grandson described how his group visited Rachel’s Tomb before the flight, and on their return, assembled for a moving ceremony at the Western Wall. He described how some of the most moving moments for him were not merely the camps, the museums or even the crematoria and gas chambers. What touched him most profoundly was standing on the soil where hundreds of thousands of Jews had been brutally murdered and where their bodies had been buried in mass graves. The immensity of what transpired during that terrible period was further realized when he and his companions related to numbers comprising their own home communities and appreciated that more than the equivalent of an entire community were murdered in one single day. The trip also highlighted the extraordinary thriving religious, cultural and social life of the great Jewish communities in Poland – snuffed out overnight by the Nazis. Unless we continue to educate the younger generations so they appreciate the lessons of the Holocaust and its relationship to our status today as an independent Jewish state able to defend itself as well as providing a haven for Jews in distress, we will have betrayed our solemn commitment to remember. And this terrible episode will simply become a footnote of history.

Isi Leibler may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com

This column was originally published in the  and

Browse more articles like this at www.wordfromjerusalem.com

Recent Articles:   Passover, our festival of freedom and miracles (April 20, 2016)   Anglo-Jewry confronts Labour anti-Semitic surge (April 13, 2016)   The United Nations sanctifies evil (April 6, 2016)   American Jews face dilemma in presidential elections (March 30, 2016)