Prof Palazzi on the
Jerusalem question
The population of Metropolitan Ottawa, Canada's national capital,
exceeds one million people (2001 Census data), but one would never guess
it from the exceptionally thin cultural life in Ottawa. This statement
also applies to political activity on behalf of Israel. It was, therefore,
heart-warming to learn that Prof Palazzi would be speaking at Carleton
University on Monday, March 1, 2004 (yesterday). The lecture's topic was
"Moslem-Jewish Dialogue and the Question of Jerusalem".
The talk was accompanied by very little publicity. On Monday morning,
the CBC ran an interview with a certain Mr Barghouti, who was scheduled to
speak on the same day, at the same Carleton University. The interview
included details about Barghouti's talk (time, location, topic), but not a
word was said about Prof Palazzi's talk. Thus, the public at large was not
informed about the lecture, whatever on-campus announcements might have
been posted.
By my unprofessional estimate, the audience at Prof Palazzi's lecture
consisted of approximately 60 people, half of whom were Moslems (as judged
by attire). The talk lasted for 90 minutes, and was followed by a Q&A
session. The following is a review of some of the points Prof Palazzi made
in his presentation, as I understood them. Of course, I am solely
responsible for the contents of this report.
1. Jerusalem may well serve as an issue to foster understanding among
Jews, Christians and Moslems, since it is commonly acknowledged that the
city is holy to all three religions. For Judaism, in particular, Jerusalem
is the principal holy city, second to none, while for Christianity and
Islam it is of secondary rank.
2. Jerusalem's uniqueness to Judaism is recognized and respected
throughout the history and theology of Islam. For example, says Prof
Palazzi, when Omar conquered Jerusalem, he reversed a Roman and Christian
ban that prohibited Jews from living in Jerusalem. Omar, in fact, had 72
Jewish families from Tiberias re-locate to Jerusalem. By the same token,
Saladdin revoked a similar ban imposed by the Crusaders.
3. In this century, the Sharif Hussein bin Ali (1853-1931) of Mecca
wrote an article in favour of the Jewish resettlement in Palestine,
underscoring that the return of the Jews is in accordance with the Koran.
On January 3, 1919, Hussein's son, Faisal, signed an agreement with
Weizmann in the same vein; he also signed a letter to Felix Frankfurter,
President of the Zionist Organisation of America, in which he welcomed the
Zionist enterprise. Both documents may be found on the web in several
places, such as Prof Palazzi's site, http://amislam.com/feisal.htm
(this site also quotes from Hussein's article of March 23, 1918).
4. What prevented the Zionist-Arab co-operation, according to Prof
Palazzi, was the change in the British policy, and specifically, reneging
on promises made to both the Zionist movement and the Hashemites. Rather,
the British betrayed Hussein and Faisal, created several Arab states
(Jordan, Iraq), and threw their support behind the al Saudis (who drove
the Hashemites out of Mecca).
5. In the writings of Hussein and Faisal, as well as in common parlance
until 1948, "Palestine" referred to the area in which the Zionist project
was taking shape; the term was associated exclusively with Jews. After
1948, and until 1967, the Arabs of the areas occupied by Jordan were
considered Jordanian, and the Arabs in Gaza, Egyptian. The Arabs used
"Palestinians" to refer to the Israeli Arabs. It was only subsequent to
1967 that the PLO filled the term with new content and invented "a
Palestinian nation" deserving of the right to self-determination. In
moments of truth, however, the Arab leaders themselves admit that the
concept was invented merely for propaganda purposes.
6. A particularly interesting development in the creation of this
fiction concerns Jerusalem. The official PA line is that a Jewish temple
never stood on the site of Temple Mount. This negates not only historical
evidence, but also the Moslem tradition itself. Specifically, over the
centuries, many Islamic scholars referred to Solomon's temple and the
connection with Judaism. Such books, uncensored, may be purchased
throughout the Arab world, but not in the PA-controlled areas, where the
books are either unobtainable or censored.
7. Prof Palazzi recounted an amusing incident. On one occasion, he
visited Temple Mount, pointed to a large rock, and asked an Arab tourist
guide for the name of the rock. The tourist guide gave the Arabic name
which translates approximately to "the place where Solomon stood". To this
Prof Palazzi mentioned to the guide that the name he gave contradict the
official line, according to which Temple Mount has no connection to
Solomon and Jews. For an answer, the guide referred Prof. Palazzi to the
Mufti. The current Mufti, incidentally, is a political appointee who has
emptied this religious post of all its religious content.
8. This flying in the face of Islamic teachings and traditions also
extends to suicide bombings which Islam doubly forbids: suicide, defined
as one engineering one's own death, is forbidden, and so is harming
innocent non-combatants, especially women and children.
9. Prof Palazzi strongly opposes recent "peace plans", which re-divide
Jerusalem and place parts of it under a proposed PA state. Furthermore, he
sees caving in to Arab terrorism, which culminate in the Road Map and
similar "peace plans", as a serious danger to the West's war against
terrorism, for such caving in undermines the moral basis for the war
against terrorism. In this context, Prof Palazzi sees a measure of hope in
Europe's recent investigations about the PA's finances; the Italian
Moslems community has been demanding such an investigation and an end to
EU support for the terrorist PA since 1997. Unfortunately, I do not share
Prof Palazzi's optimism.
For more on Prof. Palazzi and his views, use IsraPundit's search
engine, Google search, and the link given above.
Posted by Joseph Alexander Norland at March 2, 2004 10:34 AM
| TrackBack
Prof Palazzi on the Jerusalem question
The population of Metropolitan Ottawa, Canada's national capital, exceeds one million people (2001 Census data), but one would never guess it from the exceptionally thin cultural life in Ottawa. This statement also applies to political activity on behalf of Israel. It was, therefore, heart-warming to learn that Prof Palazzi would be speaking at Carleton University on Monday, March 1, 2004 (yesterday). The lecture's topic was "Moslem-Jewish Dialogue and the Question of Jerusalem".
The talk was accompanied by very little publicity. On Monday morning, the CBC ran an interview with a certain Mr Barghouti, who was scheduled to speak on the same day, at the same Carleton University. The interview included details about Barghouti's talk (time, location, topic), but not a word was said about Prof Palazzi's talk. Thus, the public at large was not informed about the lecture, whatever on-campus announcements might have been posted.
By my unprofessional estimate, the audience at Prof Palazzi's lecture consisted of approximately 60 people, half of whom were Moslems (as judged by attire). The talk lasted for 90 minutes, and was followed by a Q&A session. The following is a review of some of the points Prof Palazzi made in his presentation, as I understood them. Of course, I am solely responsible for the contents of this report.
1. Jerusalem may well serve as an issue to foster understanding among Jews, Christians and Moslems, since it is commonly acknowledged that the city is holy to all three religions. For Judaism, in particular, Jerusalem is the principal holy city, second to none, while for Christianity and Islam it is of secondary rank.
2. Jerusalem's uniqueness to Judaism is recognized and respected throughout the history and theology of Islam. For example, says Prof Palazzi, when Omar conquered Jerusalem, he reversed a Roman and Christian ban that prohibited Jews from living in Jerusalem. Omar, in fact, had 72 Jewish families from Tiberias re-locate to Jerusalem. By the same token, Saladdin revoked a similar ban imposed by the Crusaders.
3. In this century, the Sharif Hussein bin Ali (1853-1931) of Mecca wrote an article in favour of the Jewish resettlement in Palestine, underscoring that the return of the Jews is in accordance with the Koran. On January 3, 1919, Hussein's son, Faisal, signed an agreement with Weizmann in the same vein; he also signed a letter to Felix Frankfurter, President of the Zionist Organisation of America, in which he welcomed the Zionist enterprise. Both documents may be found on the web in several places, such as Prof Palazzi's site, http://amislam.com/feisal.htm (this site also quotes from Hussein's article of March 23, 1918).
4. What prevented the Zionist-Arab co-operation, according to Prof Palazzi, was the change in the British policy, and specifically, reneging on promises made to both the Zionist movement and the Hashemites. Rather, the British betrayed Hussein and Faisal, created several Arab states (Jordan, Iraq), and threw their support behind the al Saudis (who drove the Hashemites out of Mecca).
5. In the writings of Hussein and Faisal, as well as in common parlance until 1948, "Palestine" referred to the area in which the Zionist project was taking shape; the term was associated exclusively with Jews. After 1948, and until 1967, the Arabs of the areas occupied by Jordan were considered Jordanian, and the Arabs in Gaza, Egyptian. The Arabs used "Palestinians" to refer to the Israeli Arabs. It was only subsequent to 1967 that the PLO filled the term with new content and invented "a Palestinian nation" deserving of the right to self-determination. In moments of truth, however, the Arab leaders themselves admit that the concept was invented merely for propaganda purposes.
6. A particularly interesting development in the creation of this fiction concerns Jerusalem. The official PA line is that a Jewish temple never stood on the site of Temple Mount. This negates not only historical evidence, but also the Moslem tradition itself. Specifically, over the centuries, many Islamic scholars referred to Solomon's temple and the connection with Judaism. Such books, uncensored, may be purchased throughout the Arab world, but not in the PA-controlled areas, where the books are either unobtainable or censored.
7. Prof Palazzi recounted an amusing incident. On one occasion, he visited Temple Mount, pointed to a large rock, and asked an Arab tourist guide for the name of the rock. The tourist guide gave the Arabic name which translates approximately to "the place where Solomon stood". To this Prof Palazzi mentioned to the guide that the name he gave contradict the official line, according to which Temple Mount has no connection to Solomon and Jews. For an answer, the guide referred Prof. Palazzi to the Mufti. The current Mufti, incidentally, is a political appointee who has emptied this religious post of all its religious content.
8. This flying in the face of Islamic teachings and traditions also extends to suicide bombings which Islam doubly forbids: suicide, defined as one engineering one's own death, is forbidden, and so is harming innocent non-combatants, especially women and children.
9. Prof Palazzi strongly opposes recent "peace plans", which re-divide Jerusalem and place parts of it under a proposed PA state. Furthermore, he sees caving in to Arab terrorism, which culminate in the Road Map and similar "peace plans", as a serious danger to the West's war against terrorism, for such caving in undermines the moral basis for the war against terrorism. In this context, Prof Palazzi sees a measure of hope in Europe's recent investigations about the PA's finances; the Italian Moslems community has been demanding such an investigation and an end to EU support for the terrorist PA since 1997. Unfortunately, I do not share Prof Palazzi's optimism.
For more on Prof. Palazzi and his views, use IsraPundit's search engine, Google search, and the link given above.
Posted by Joseph Alexander Norland at March 2, 2004 10:34 AM | TrackBack