Al Ahram: "Remember who built Jerusalem"

Al Ahram gives full credence here to all the hysteria about the current construction around the Temple Mount. The final paragraphs contain a remarkable comparison of current Israeli activities to the destruction of the Buddha statues in Afghanistan and also mention ancient hiroglyphic references to "'the Plast people'", clearly the Palestinians":

[...] The secretary-general of the 57-member Islamic Conference Organisation (ICO), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, yesterday expressed his anguish and dismay at the world's silence on Israel's blatant moves to "Judaise" Jerusalem and change the holy city's historic character. The ICO was formally established in September 1969 after the burning of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"When the Buddhist statues were being demolished in Bamiyan, the whole world rose up against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan," Ihsanoglu said in an exclusive interview with Arab News yesterday. "UNESCO was very active then, but not a word is being said against what Israel is doing to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Nobody utters a word against the Israeli aggression. Nobody is really taking any action. There is silence all over."

Ali Radwan, head of the General Arab Union for Archaeologists, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Israel's encroachment upon Al-Aqsa Mosque had not been sporadic, but, rather, a systematic endeavour that began when it occupied Jerusalem, an attempt to change the cultural history of the city and rewrite its past.

Over the last 50 years Israel has made continuous attempts to rewrite the cultural history of the Middle East. Back in 2001, two years after enrolling as a member of the World Heritage Committee, Israel submitted an official request to place 28 Palestinian sites on its World Heritage list as belonging to Israel, among them the historic Arab city of Jerusalem. The move was naturally contested by Arab countries because it went against international law -- including the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and the International Convention of the Protection of International Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972. Israel nevertheless succeeded in registering three areas as its own: the old city of Acre, the Bow Houses in Tel-Aviv, and the Roman fortress at Masada. Two further attempts were made three years ago. One concerned the countries that fall within the Great Rift Valley, and the other Jerusalem.

Radwan announced that according to historical evidence "Rowa-Lem- Shem-Yem" or Jerusalem, is an Ancient Egyptian word, written in hieroglyphs in manuscripts and documents dating back to the reign of the Middle Kingdom Pharaoh Senusert III, about 1830 BC. This is much earlier than any existing Hebrew texts. References to the "the Plast people", clearly the Palestinians, are found written in hieroglyphics in New Kingdom manuscripts. Rowa-Lem-Shem-Yem means a city of Canaanite origin and does not mean Jewish or Hebrew land. Radwan pointed out that Jerusalem was completely destroyed in 70AD by Titus, son of the Roman emperor Vespasian and that Emperor Hadrian prohibited any Jew from entering Jerusalem.

So "Plastic" would mean "pertaining to Palestinians"?

Tags: Jerusalem, Temple Mount, Canaanites, Israel, Palestinians