Arafat's Mufti: No such thing as a 'Wailing Wall'

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1071300405092

On the same day that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was quoted as saying that he recognizes Jewish sovereignty over the Western Wall, his mufti, Ikremah Sabri, said on Friday that there is no such thing as a "Wailing Wall."

In an interview last week, Arafat reportedly told Henry Siegman, director of the United States/Middle East Project of the Council on Foreign Relations and former executive director of the American Jewish Congress, that he accepts Jewish sovereignty over the Wailing Wall and over the Jewish quarter of the Old City.

Arafat explained: "My religion, Islam, obliges me to respect Judaism and Jewish history, whose prophets are revered in the holy Quran as God's messengers. While we insist that East Jerusalem be the capital of a Palestinian state, and that the Haram al-Sharif, on which are situated the two mosques, Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, come under Palestinian sovereignty, we accept Jewish sovereignty over the Wailing Wall and over the Jewish quarter of the Old City. We accept this only because we recognize and respect the Jewish religion and the Jewish historical attachment to Palestine."

But the mufti, who was appointed by Arafat, told thousands of worshippers attending Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque that the Western Wall is part of the Al-Aqsa mosque and that it belongs to the Muslim Wakf (trust). "Seventy years ago the Committee of the League of Nations recognized the Al-Buraq Wall (Western Wall) as being part of the walls of the Al-Aqsa mosque," Sabri said.

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the usual....say one thing for propaganda, say the opposite
to the palestinians.

drdon326.

With the communication in this day and age...and Palestinians on the net...you can't say different things to different groups.

However, two people can still disagree.

Since Arafat is the one in charge tho...just ignore Pat Robertson in disguise there.

the most recent data (as given in this forum by pro-Pals) is that 8% of Palestinians are using the net.

I respectfully tell you that not only can anyone, but anyone does indeed say one thing to the Western countries and quite another to his Arab followers; one in English, one in Arabic. I would venture to add, without a link however, that the exhortations in Arabic to the man in the street are in no way promoting peace and understanding. But, considering the suicide bombings and so forth, to me that is obvious.

there are NO moderate Palestinians?

Why is it only Arabic that's portrayed as a language where people say one thing to English speakers and another to Arabs? Why wouldn't the same go for languages like Hebrew? And as there's clever folk around who are multi-lingual, it would seem to me that they'd be the people who can make comparisons between what's presented to people. I for one don't expect folk like Arafat and Sharon to talk to their people in English, and neither do I automatically suspect them of saying one thing in English and the other in their native tongue because they're speaking to their people in a language *they* understand...

Violet...

is attached to the Mosque grounds.

I do not read the mufti's words the same way you do. He does NOT say it does not exist - he says it is part of the Muslim site. It is just as the Mosque is part of the Jewish site.

But having been to the Temple Mount myself I know that they are all part of the same structure. The two religions have to SHARE the space. Arafat's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Wailing Wall is a good thing, whether or not any of the religious figures agree what parts of the Temple Mount belong to which religion.

In the Holy Sepulchre the various denominations take turns using the Holy site. I bel;ieve that will have to happen at the Temple Mount as well.

But since Muslims do not want to pray at the Western Wall and Jews do -- it makes sense that the Jews have the Western Wall and the Mosque belongs to the Muslims. But the Dome of the Rock SHOULD IMHO, be shared by all of the Abrahamic traditions (Jews, Muslims and Christians) as the site of the near sacrifice of Abraham's son.

Religious sorts are ALWAYS going to argue about who should have FIRST dibs on control (which is an ungoing matter of negotiations),

But Arafat's position is good and the Mufti's is no different than those Jews who want total control and claim it on the Mount itself: it is the rest of us who must really pressure the religious to be tolerant of each other's desires to worship there.

Many contradictions need explanations. Headlines often distort the articles that appear under them. For instance the one that claims that the "occupation creates children willing to die". Nowhere is that the claim in the article.

Selling newspapers does not always work in the interests
of making peace.

They're there for the sole purpose of jumping out from the page and grabbing people's attention. I've lost track of the number of times I've seen a headline on the front page of a morning paper and bought the paper so I can read it, only to find out that it doesn't reflect at all what the article's about....


Violet...