A Muslim cleric accused of playing a central role in instigating the current Palestinian "wave of terror" in Israel has been challenged to explain why Jews cannot pray at their holiest site, the Temple Mount in old Jerusalem.
During a heated radio talk show debate with Jewish US journalist Aaron Klein, who broadcasts from Tel Aviv, Sheikh Ibrahim Sansur stressed that the Jews are prohibited from going to the holiest site even if they have to pray.
"They cannot go," Sansur replied. "Jews have no right to pray on the Temple Mount and they can build their temple in Yemen from my point of view."
"You are simply exploding the whole area if not the whole world. They have to respect the realities on the ground. Let people think that this place is a sacred place for them. Jews and Muslims," he added when pressed to say more, according to a report by the WND.
Sansur, an Israeli Arab who served as a member of Israel's Knesset, insisted that the Western wall is not a holy Jewish site but an "integral part'' of the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is located on the Temple Mount and referred to by Muslims today as the "Haram al-Sharif" (The Nobel Sanctuary).
He also disputed widespread reports by the international media that the Waqfs, or the custodians of the Temple Mount, were caught disposing of Jewish temple artefacts found on the site. The Waqf was widely accused of attempting to hide evidence of the existence of the Jewish temples.
"It's one great lie, one great bluff," he said of the reports. "Muslims are here. And they have their own researchers and they have their own archaeologists."
In 1997, the Waqf has reportedly conducted a large dig on the Temple Mount during the construction of a massive mosque at an area referred to as Solomon's Stables. The Wafq at the time disposed truckloads of dirt containing Jewish artefacts from the First and Second Temple periods.
Israeli authorities have stopped the construction permit given to the Wafq after the media exposed the disposals. The dirt was then transferred to Israeli archaeologists for analysis, WND said.
"The Israeli authorities found scores of Jewish Temple relics in the nearly disposed dirt, including coins with Hebrew writing referencing the Temple, part of a Hasmonean lamp, several other Second Temple lamps, Temple-period pottery with Jewish markings, a marble pillar shaft and other Temple-period artefacts," according to the report.
Sansur is one the leading clerics behind the ideology of the Islamic Movement, which has been accused of spearheading a campaign of incitement by claiming that Jews are targeting the Al Aqsa Mosque, the WND said.
Klein is an American Jew who also serves as WND's senior reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief.
