A US Republican senator, supported by 16 co-sponsors, introduced legislation on Thursday that would eliminate aid to the Palestinian Authority should it “continue to authorize the removal of archeological antiquities from Judaism's holiest site,” reported Haaretz.
Senator Eric Cantor’s proposal was lauded by Jewish leaders in Washington “who have become increasingly concerned with Palestinian leaders' claims that Jewish history at the Temple Mount is fabricated, and their efforts to excavate and destroy such history in Jerusalem's Old City.”
Calling the destruction "one of the most unprecedented attacks on religious heritage of our time," Cantor stated at a press conference that under the current circumstances, "thousands of years of Judeo-Christian heritage is under siege at this most sacred of sites to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam."
The legislation, which calls on the Bush administration to "prohibit assistance to the PA or its instrumentalities unless the president certifies that no excavation of the Temple Mount in Israel is being conducted," states that the "massive excavations and unsupervised destruction of artifacts are undeniable affronts to the concept of religious freedom and tolerance that must be respected in order to achieve and maintain peace in the Middle East."
The paper claims that after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Wakf, or Islamic religious trust, began authorizing widespread bulldozing and destroying of antiquities dating back to the First Temple period, which have allegedly been dumped in the Kidron Valley nearby and, according to some reports, sold on the black market, in early 1998.
Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the PA-appointed mufti of Jerusalem and chief Muslim administrator of the site, was referred to by Cantor in the legislation as an anti-Semite. Sabri has publicly, and repeatedly, denied any Jewish link to the Temple Mount. At the Camp David peace summit last year, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat also reportedly rejected any Jewish claims to the Temple Mount, added Haaretz.
According to Cantor's legislation, "the actions of Yasser Arafat and the PA threaten to eliminate all historical evidence of Jewish activity on the Temple Mount and serve to discredit Israeli claims of sovereignty over the Temple Mount."
The US is set to provide the Palestinians with $125 million this year as part of a three-year, $400 million package approved by Congress in 2000, as well as an additional $75 million in indirect aid through the US Agency for International Development.
"I think it's important that Congress understand that the Palestinians can't be trusted on many levels, not the least of which is that they can't be trusted to preserve the important religious sites in Jerusalem," said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), one of the bill's co-sponsors. "I think we need to hold them accountable and the Cantor legislation seeks to do that," he said.
For a Christian member of Congress and co-sponsor, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana), the desecration of Jewish history on the Temple Mount is "an outrageous example of an attempt by the PA to show no regard to the important claim that both Jewish and Christian history have on that site."
The legislation is expected to spark angry reactions by the Palestinians and the Arabs, who accuse the Israelis of conducting excavations that are undermining the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place in Islam.
Excavations under the holy site have routinely triggered protests that claimed the lives of many Palestinians, who feel it is their duty to defend the city from Israel's occupation forces.
The present Intifada, in which more than 500 Palestinians have been killed, was sparked by a provocative visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, then an MP and Likud Party leader, to the holy site.
In 1996, Israel opened a tunnel under the site, claiming it to be the route Jesus took on the way to the crucifixion. A number of Palestinians died in protests against the move – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
