The public preaching (Jumuah khutba) that was delivered by Maulana Igsaan Hendricks, president of the Muslim Judicial Council, at Masjid-Sulaimani on the eve of the Palestinian Nakba on Friday 10 May, and broadcast live on VOC is immensely troubling. It is troubling because it purports to come from a learned man holding a position of great responsibility in his community.

It is concerning because it perpetuates an unfortunate tradition amongst many Muslims, that finds it necessary to rewrite history and undermine well established facts with pure fantasy and conspiracy theories. While Muslims are ultra-sensitive to any criticism about their religion and its prophet, they are rather less sensitive and often arrogant in their criticism of other faiths.  

Hendricks refers to the Balfour Declaration which in 1917 "promised this land to some other people, who never owned the land in the first place." This 'some other people', are not just any people, they are the Jews and they have a long and well documented history which binds them inexorably to the land of Israel.

Although they were displaced from their land in many wars over many millennia, they always considered the land of Israel, as their only home. While in exile, which was an unnatural state of existence, they yearned for their return to Zion (Jerusalem). As Jews they could not fulfil their ‘mitzvot' or required ‘good deeds' while not living in Israel-because many of these ‘deeds' could only be fulfilled at the Holy Temple. These are deeply embedded principles of faith and tradition, that Hendricks cannot just dismiss.

To state that the Jews 'never owned the land' is an outrageous lie. Jews are not just colonists. Jews have always lived in Israel and in Jerusalem they have always been a majority. For 400 years, two Kingdoms of Jews reigned in Judea and Israel. That is recorded in the best selling book of all time. Hendricks's statements are provocative, untruthful and hurtful.

Hendricks then ventures to make make the most outrageous statement that "Prior to 1929, there was absolutely no evidence of the Wailing Wall." He then proceeds to say that; "The Buraq Wall is an integral part of Masjidul-Aqsa. If any Muslim believes it is an exercise of inter-faith or to recognise that the Jewish people have a right to be in front of the Wailing Wall, then it is a sign of extreme arrogance and ignorance."

Now this is provocative because it is an attack on the foundational truths of Judaism and of Christianity. If Hendricks had any knowledge of the New Testament he would have read in Matthew (21:12), that Jesus chased Jewish "moneychangers" from the Holy Temple, Mark 11;12-19 refers to Jesus praying at the Holy Temple, and many other Christian references, several hundred years before Al-Aqsa was built.

If Hendricks were to tour the ‘Wailing wall' and enter the tunnels astride the wall, he will find proof of how Muslim rule has tried to cleanse the Temple Mount of its Jewish past. Years after the Romans destroyed all but the foundations of the Temple, and the 'Wailing wall is part of these foundations, the stones of the temple were used to build houses over the temple walls and courtyard, to try to ‘hide' any proof of the Temple's existence. A small part, the ‘Wailing Wall' remained visible. As part of this cleansing process, the Jordanian authorities, who ruled over the Old City, forbade Jews from visiting the ‘Wailing Wall. They continued a process of ‘ethnic cleansing' trying to destroy all evidence of Jewish life in the Old City, by demolishing synagogues, schools and Jewish homes.

Like Holocaust denial, denial of the existence of the Holy Temple is an unholy and mendacious attempt to deprive a people of their history and identity. It is a crime against humanity and for his participation in perpetrating this crime Hendricks deserves the severest opprobrium.

Hendricks addresses the ‘Nakba' (catastrophe) or birth of Israel at length and he is entitled to do so. But he omits to mention that the Palestinians were offered by the United Nations, half the land between the Jordan River and the Sea. While the Jews were prepared to accept sharing the land, the Palestinians preferred the path of war. Hendricks is wrong with his percentages, as the Jews were promised under the Treaty of San Remo, in 1922, the whole of Mandate Palestine, which included the land to the East of the Jordan-so they were prepared to accept less than a third of the land approved by the League of Nations.

As a direct result of the war, and the attack by 5 Arab countries against a very weak fledgling state of Israel, 600,000 Palestinians were displaced. Their descendants may now number six million, but only 50,000 can directly trace their origins to Israel. Hendricks then makes mention of "the famous refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila", which he fails to mention are in Lebanon.

He ‘ speaks very loud of the very despicable conditions of the Palestinian people living there", but fails to mention that the Arab people of Lebanon are responsible for keeping the Palestinians under these pitiful conditions. It is not Israel's fault that these refugees have been denied rights enjoyed by refugees everywhere else in the world. This ongoing crime against humanity, being perpetrated against the descendants of the Palestinian refugees, needs to be acknowledged and the blame for it rests squarely with the Arab governments of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt. If Hendricks were to be true to his next words, instead of identifying with the ‘Ummah of Islam' he should condemn them for the enslavement of the Palestinian people.

Hendricks continues to spin his web of lies with his claim; "So for the last 60 years, there has been no single archaeological evidence that the Temple of Solomon ever existed beneath al-Masjid Al Aqsa al-Mubarak." And as evidence he refers to "A leading Jewish archaeologist who is author of a book on the city of the domes now lives in exile in the United Kingdom and worked for 30 years on this project.".

The evidence of this nameless researcher, when measured against the thousands of books and papers that have been written about discoveries in the last 60 years, of Jewish ritual baths, of altars, of stones like the ‘trumpeting place' discovered by Benjamin Mazar, of the City of David, of wells and of coins, can't be wished away or ignored by Hendricks.

So what is it in the minds of intelligent men like Hendricks, and there are others, such as Mahmoud Abbas, President of Palestine, his advisor Ahmad Al-Ruweidi, almost the entire Palestinian cabinet, clerics and ministers, all of whom used the term "alleged Temple" denying its Jewish connection?

Hendricks coasts close to calling for a religious war by fabricating a story about a Zionist plot to lock a door leading to an enclave of Sufi sheiks. From 1967 till now, that Zawiya has been closed by the Zionists. Do you know that the door?"

He fails to acknowledge that the whole Haram el Sheriff is closed to Israelis and Jews are not allowed to enter. He fails to mention that the Al-Aksa mosque is under the control of the ‘Waqf', and instead tries to foment violence by making an emotional call to action, with the words.

"Have you forgotten, a few days ago, Masjidul Aqsa again was under the attack of extremist Jewish groups. This time, the flag of Israel was raised on al Masjidul Aqsa! The flag of the Zionist state of Israel was raised on al Masjidul Aqsa! Al Aqsa is crying.... There is a Palestinian reference that says: ‘all the masajid have been liberated. Al Masjdul-Aqsa remains under the desecration of Zionist occupation'.

Then Hendricks covers his tracks, by issuing a seemingly munificent statement; "And by the way, if anybody wants to accuse the speaker of being anti-Semitic, then let us reinforce: we believe that Muslims, Jews and Christians can peacefully co-exist as they peacefully co-existed, but not under the yoke of Zionist occupation! Interrogating this statement, it means, that Jews and Christians will be tolerated, as long as they live under Muslim control and according to the ‘dhimmi' rules of Caliph Omar-in effect as second class citizens. How can this harsh treatment of Jews be justified? Is it because it is claimed that they betrayed Muhammed.?

As long as Maulanas like Hendricks preach such hateful and hurtful untruths in their Mosques, the Palestinian people will be caught up in a vortex which will transform their struggle into a religious and irrational dimension, with no hope of resolution.

Ben Levitas is Chairman of the South African Zionist Federation Cape Council.

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