Over the past 100 years, one of the most dangerous lies to emerge from within Palestinian society is the claim that “Al-Aqsa is in danger.”
This allegation holds that Jews / Zionists / the State of Israel are planning on destroying Al-Aqsa Mosque and replacing it with the Third Temple.
Unlike other myths spread about Israel and the Jewish People, this libel is particularly dangerous as it has – and continues to – inspire deadly anti-Jewish violence.
In this piece, we will take a look at the historical evolution of this malevolent libel, as well as its continued influence within modern Palestinian society.
1921: A Lie Is Born
The myth that Jews and Zionists are threatening to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque can be traced back to 1921, soon after the establishment of the British Mandate of Palestine.
This antisemitic libel was originally manufactured and disseminated by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.
For the Grand Mufti, the purpose of spreading this libel was to incite against the Zionists and local Jewish community, to deride his political opponents as those who were giving up the mosque to the Jews and to aid in the creation of a national Palestinian ethos.
What was originally a Palestinian Arab myth confined to the British Mandate was soon spread to other parts of the Muslim world by Sheikh Abd al-Qadir al-Muzaffar, a Muslim religious leader and Palestinian nationalist.
Between 1922 and 1924, al-Muzaffar led various delegations to large Muslim communities in the Middle East, North Africa and India, collecting funds for the renovation of the Dome of the Rock and the Haram Al-Sharif (which Al-Aqsa Mosque is a part of).
As part of his financial appeals, al-Muzaffar claimed that the collected funds would be used not only for the renovations but also for the “defence of the Haram Al-Sharif.”
Thus, the libel of Jewish threats to Al-Aqsa Mosque was exported from the British Mandate of Palestine to the wider Muslim world.
Related Reading: As Palestinians Destroy Jewish Holy Sites, Media Focus On Fake ‘Attacks’ on Al-Aqsa Mosque
Throughout the 1920s, the lie that ‘Al-Aqsa is in danger’ permeated the atmosphere of tension that existed within the British Mandate.
For example, in September 1928, after a religious partition was set up at the Western Wall, the Jewish community published a letter openly stating that this should not be construed as a threat to the mosques.
However, two months later, the General Muslim Conference passed a resolution that served as a “statement of the danger which threatens the Mosque owing to the ambitions of the Jews to expropriate it from the hands of the Moslems.”
This tension came to a head in August 1929 when Palestinian Muslims, incited by rumors of an imminent Jewish plot to destroy Al-Aqsa, rampaged throughout the land. In total, 133 Jews were killed over six days, including 67 members of the ancient Jewish community of Hebron.
During the 1930s and 1940s, when the political fight over the future of the Land of Israel took on a much more important role, the centrality of Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Palestinian national narrative diminished, and – with it – the libel that the mosque was under the threat of destruction by Jews and Zionists.
Then, with the Jordanian conquest of eastern Jerusalem in 1948 and the banning of Jews from the Old City, the libel virtually vanished from the public sphere.
Related Reading: Before ‘Palestine’: Exploring the Unbroken Jewish Connection to Temple Mount
The Libel Resurfaces: 1967-2000
Following Israel’s liberation of eastern Jerusalem (including the Old City) in 1967, the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” libel resurfaced, particularly in Jordan and Palestinian society.
In the years following 1967, two events occurred that helped to solidify the popularity of this libel on the Palestinian street: In 1969, an Australian national named Denis Rohan, while suffering from psychosis, set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, damaging a prayer hall.
Then, in 1982, an Israeli-American named Alan Goodman opened fire with his army-issued rifle in the Mosque’s courtyard, killing two and wounding several more.
Even though both Rohan and Goodman acted alone and were promptly arrested by Israel and sentenced to lengthy incarceration periods, these two attacks helped feed into the conspiracy theory that Al-Aqsa Mosque was under threat from Jews, Zionists and the State of Israel.
Even today, Rohan’s arson attack is commemorated annually throughout the Muslim world as a Jewish attack against the Islamic holy site, notwithstanding the fact that Rohan was a devout Christian.
In 1990, the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” libel inspired 3,000 Muslims to gather on the Temple Mount after a rumor was spread that a Jewish organization was planning to march on the site. This devolved into the October riots, which led to the deaths of 17 Muslims and a number of wounded on both sides.
Again, in 1996, following the opening of an exit for the Western Wall Tunnels in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority accused Israel of purposely endangering the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This led to three days of rioting, during which 17 IDF soldiers and about 100 Palestinians were killed.
Around the mid-1990s, the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” libel gained more traction in Arab society when it was picked up by Sheikh Raed Salah and the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
For Salah, also known as “Sheikh Al-Aqsa,” the libel is both a matter of fact and a means of popularizing his vision of a global caliphate with Jerusalem at its center.
One of the most popular ways that Salah has successfully spread this dangerous conspiracy is by establishing “Al-Aqsa is in danger” rallies in the northern Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm during the mid-1990s.
Some of the Palestinian terrorists who have attacked Israelis have attended these rallies and have been influenced by the message that they are needed to defend Al-Aqsa against the Jews and the State of Israel.
Terror in Defence of Al-Aqsa: 2000 to Today
In September 2000, then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon toured the Temple Mount with a large contingent of police officers as part of a visit to Judaism’s holiest site.
Soon after, Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority used Sharon’s visit as an excuse to launch the Second Intifada (also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada).
The “Al-Aqsa is in danger” libel was one of the means by which the Intifada’s instigators were able to inspire Palestinians to commit violence and terrorism against Israeli targets.
During this time, a popular chant at Palestinian rallies was “To Al-Aqsa we march – shaheeds (martyrs) by the millions.”
Related Reading: The Second Intifada: Israeli Society Terrorized
A decade after the Second Intifada, during the rise in Palestinian violence and terrorism between summer 2014 and summer 2016, many of those who engaged in violence were inspired by the allegations that Al-Aqsa Mosque was under the threat of destruction by Jews and the State of Israel.
According to one study, 67 of the 71 Palestinians who committed terror attacks between August 2014 and May 2016 in Jerusalem were influenced by this libel.
For many of these terrorists, other factors (psychological issues, personal problems, etc) combined with the rampant incitement within Palestinian society about the supposed Israeli threat to Al-Aqsa led to them carrying out their attacks against Israeli targets on behalf of the Islamic holy site.
Since the violence and terrorism of the mid-2010s abated, the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” libel continues to be spread by official Palestinian media outlets both in the West Bank and Gaza.
This propaganda, which is spread on both news programs and children’s shows, includes antisemitic stereotypes that are adaptations of those found in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Der Sturmer.
Many of the claims about Israeli and Jewish threats to Al-Aqsa are manipulations of reality. For instance, archaeological digs around the Old City are viewed as attempts at destroying the mosque from below while the Israeli project to revitalize the Mughrabi bridge (which connects the Temple Mount to the Western Wall plaza) is seen as a plot to allow soldiers to overrun the Islamic holy site.
Over 100 years after it was first spread by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” libel continues to serve as one of the most popular messages of incitement against Jews and the State of Israel.
As long as it continues to be spread unopposed, this libel will continue to inspire hate, murder and terrorism for the next 100 years and more.
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Photo Credit: AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images
