Palestinian and other Arab leaders threatened violence in response to President Trump’s pledge to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. While Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also promised such a move as candidates, each backed off in the end.
The terrorist who killed four Israelis in Jerusalem on January 8th expressed agitation after hearing a sermon at a local mosque criticizing Trump’s embassy relocation promise.The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership reportedly instructed the mosques it controls to focus their religious sermons on the embassy relocation. Worse still, the PA promised the terrorist’s widow a lifetime, $760-per-month stipend for her husband’s “martyrdom for Allah.”
Arab reactions to Trump’s embassy plans are more heated than they were to those of previous candidates, perhaps because of Trump’s pledge to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocate the embassy there from Tel Aviv, not only as a candidate, but also as president-elect, issuing public reassurances on the issue.
Nevertheless, Palestinian and Arab leaders have warned that moving the embassy could lead to unrest and violence. Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called the idea “a declaration of war against Islam.” PA President Mahmoud Abbas said he could revoke the PLO’s recognition of Israel, while his Fatah party warned the move “would open the gates of hell.” Such declarations by political and religious leaders give a green light to Palestinians to react violently, as the Jerusalem terrorist attack shows.
Palestinian leaders, including the “more moderate” Palestinian Authority, regularly deny that Jews have any historical or religious connection to the Temple Mount. PA Jerusalem Affairs Minister Adnan al-Husseini demanded an apology after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was “completely clear that the Temple that the Romans destroyed in Jerusalem was a Jewish temple.” This statement “violated all legal, diplomatic, and humanitarian customs and overstepped his role as secretary general,” al-Husseini said.
This is not the first time that the Palestinians, including the “more moderate” Palestinian Authority, manipulated Jerusalem into an incendiary trigger for terror. As Palestinian Media Watch reported, Abbas led calls in 2015 for Palestinians to act violently to “defend” Muslim holy sites. He blessed “every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem” and presented violence in “defense” of holy sites and against the Jews’ “filthy feet” as a religious imperative.
The “Stabbing Intifidah” was launched in 2015 by false rumors that Israel was trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount. Writing about the 2015 “Stabbing Intifida,” journalist Jeffrey Goldberg rightly pointed out that it was “prompted in good part by the same set of manipulated emotions that sparked the anti-Jewish riots of the 1920s; a deeply felt desire on the part of Palestinians to “protect’ the Temple Mount from Jews.” In the 1929 Arab riots, Arabs killed more than 130 Jews, and nearly as many Arabs died when British police responded.
Unfortunately, Jerusalem has a long and bloody history of being manipulated by Muslim leaders into an explosive tool of incitement. If Islam truly is a religion of peace, its leading practitioners should stop turning religious holy sites into weapons of war, and instead embrace Doctor Ahmed’s tolerance.
Originally written for the Investigative Project on Terrorism and posted at Israel Today Magazine.
