PA Official Claims Temple Mount is Not Jewish

From Arutz Sheva (IsraelNN.com), 10/11/08, by Hillel Fendel:

Top PA officials continue to deny Israel's connection to Judaism's most sacred spot in the world - the Temple Mount. [...just one more piece of historical revisionism in the Israel-bashing arsenal - SL]

The latest to do so is Ahmed Qurei, known also as Abu Ala, who has led and continues to lead Palestinian Authority negotiations with Israel. In a small media briefing this past Wednesday, Qurei said, "Israeli occupation authorities are trying to find a so-called Jewish historical connection between Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, but all these attempts will fail. The [Temple Mount] is 100 percent Muslim."

The remarks were reported by Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily.com, one of only three journalists present for the briefing. The others, Klein reported, were an Arab affairs correspondent for a major Israeli newspaper and a reporter for PA newspaper Al-Ayam. The Israeli newspaper chose not to publish Qurei's remarks.

"The world must be mobilized against all these Israeli attempts to change the symbols and signs of Jerusalem," Qurei said. "There was no so-called Jewish Temple. It's imaginary. Jerusalem is 100 percent Muslim." ..."They are competing against time in order to create facts on ground in the surrounding imaginary Temple," added Qurei, who is considered a moderate by both the U.S. and Israeli governments.

Waqf Debunks Claim
The Waqf itself - the Supreme Moslem Council of Jerusalem which now runs the Temple Mount day-to-day - has debunked the Moslem claim that the holy site is not Jewish - in a Temple Mount guide it published in 1925....