Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Palestinian Nation

Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Palestinian Nation

That is 100% true. That is the way that the nation that was invented in 1968 in Russia defined themselves and their capital. A strange statement to define your capital in an area which you have no control over. It is like someone defining the White House as his ancestral home.

Put that aside for a moment and let us try and understand why they defined it as such. It is because it has been drummed into the Arab minds that Jerusalem is one of their three Holy places after both Mecca and Medina. But is it?

The Jewish connection to Jerusalem is well documented, not only in the bible but also with a plethora of archaeological artifacts and evidence. Judaism made Jerusalem a holy city over three thousand years ago and through all that time Jews remained steadfast to it. Jews pray in its direction, mention its name constantly in prayers and in the the Passover service we say "Next year in Jerusalem,". In a wedding ceremony we smash a glass to remember the destruction of Jerusalem and we even have fast days. It is also the only city with a Jewish majority for the past few hundred years.

The name Jerusalem means City of Peace

Christians have a claim as this is the site of the via dolorosa and the site where Jesus was reported to be buried. However despite three crusades to rid Jerusalem from non-Christians, the Catholic pope has always resided in the Vatican. The Christian connection is also strong.

But what about the Islamic connection? It is not mentioned in the Holy Koran. The entire Holy Land belongs to the Jews according to the Koran and Jerusalem was there at the time. The basis of the Islamic claim is Sura 17 which claims "Glory to Him who caused His servant to travel by night from the Sacred Mosque to the al-masgid al-aqsa, whose precincts We have blessed, in order to show him some of Our Signs, He is indeed the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing". Al-masgid al-aqsa means the "Furthest mosque". Mohammed was reported to have traveled to the Al-masgid al-aqsa on a mythical winged beast with the body of a horse and the head of a woman known as the Buraq. The Muslims claim that the Al-masgid al-aqsa in in Jerusalem, however Mohammed died in 632 and the Al Aksa mosque in Jerusalem was built a hundred years later. Jerusalem was only invaded by the Muslims five years after Mohammed's death.

When the Muslims first invaded the Holy Land and occupied Jerusalem, for the first few hundred years they called Jerusalem Bayt al-Maqdis or Bayt al-Muqaddas which is taken from the Hebrew Bayt HaMikdash, meaniung the Jewish Temple

2009 was defined by the Arab League as Jerusalem, capital of Arab culture

According to Mordechai Kedar, an Israeli scholar of Arabic culture, and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, early Islamic sources state that the "al Aqsa Mosque" (literal meaning: 'the farther mosque'), was one of two mosques located near Ji'irrana which is now a part of Saudi Arabia. One of the mosques was called "al-Masjid al-Adna," meaning the "closer mosque" and the other "al-Masjid al-Aqsa", the "farther mosque." When the Koran refers to the al Aqsa mosque while telling the story of the Prophet Muhammad's night time journey from the "holy mosque" of Mecca to al Aqsa, that is, the "farther mosque," it is referring to the mosque in Ji'irrana.

So the Muslim claim is in a word, dubious. Muslims do not pray towards Jerusalem, they pray towards Mecca. The Haj is to Mecca. When the Holy Land was conquered by the Islamic invaders and then occupied by the Muslims, its capital was Ramle, 30 miles to the west of Jerusalem, signifying that Jerusalem meant nothing to them.

So where if any is the religious significance? So, with what right do the Palestinians demand Jerusalem as their capital? When a part of Jerusalem was occupied by Jordanians, the newly created PLO, or Palestinian Liberation Organization, the sole representative of the Palestinian people (as defined by the Arab League and the United Nations), rescinded all claims to areas occupied by Jordan.

Article 24. This Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or the Himmah Area.~PLO Covenant 1964

So, again, with what right do the Palestinians demand Jerusalem as their capital? The answer is simple - with the Palestinian belligerency and threats, they can do anything they want and no one, until President Trump, has put a stop to them.

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