LETTERS Historic claims
Sir: If Daniel Pipes's attempt to rewrite his- tory proves anything (Not so holy city', 22 November), it is that Jewish claims on Jerusalem do not extend beyond the last 30 years, for the city was for the last two mil- lennia, by his own admission, alternately ruled by Christians and Muslims, and before that by pagan Rome. It was Herod, the occupier and oppressor of the Jews, who built the second temple, and so the only remnant of it, the Wailing Wall, should not be sacred to Jews in any way. It is only because of politics that Jews show an interest in Jerusalem and the rest of Pales- tine: had Herzl settled for Uganda, the Zionists' neglect of Jerusalem would have been absolute.
Of course, there remains the biblical argu- ment, and when I quoted Micah iii 9-12 to a journalist in Jerusalem (rulers of the house of Israel . . . who built Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong) he told me he believed neither in God nor the Bible, yet he insisted that Jerusalem was the Jews' God-given right! Biblical Jerusalem relates to believing Israelites, whereas some 80 per cent of Israel's popu- lation describe themselves as secular, non- believing Jews, and most of them are of East European, not Oriental stock. Before Daniel Pipes wants to play politics with religious sentiments and deny Muslims their stake in their holy city, he should study his own people's history and discover that — unlike the Jews — Muslims and Christians, whom he conveniently omits in his polemic, have a historic claim of sovereignty over Jerusalem.
Sahib Mustaqim Bleher
islamparty@smb.powemet.co.uk
Previous page
