Lethal PA libel alive and kicking

•    Israel is excavating under the Al-Aqsa Mosque, building “the alleged Temple”
•    “[Western] Wall has no connection to Jews”
•    Western Wall is “Islamic heritage”

One of the most lethal recurring Palestinian Authority libels accuses Israel of planning to destroy and defile the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Many Palestinian terrorists who murdered Israelis have explained that they killed in defense of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

One version of this libel spread by the PA is that Israel is trying to destroy the Mosque by digging under it as it searches for remnants of the “alleged Jewish Temple” and/or tries to construct the third Temple. This life-endangering libel was repeated recently by a host on official PA TV:

Official PA TV reporter: There is construction work taking place under the Al-Aqsa Mosque to build the alleged Temple of Solomon…
Expert on international law Dr. Ibrahim Al-Rabi: "Regarding this [Western] wall that the Jews claim is the remains of the Temple of Solomon – it must be understood that UNESCO has said that this wall has no connection to Jews, but is rather an Islamic heritage. In other words, it is subject to Palestinian rule and the Jews have no right to it."

[Official PA TV, The Supreme Authority, Dec. 19, 2019]

Entrenching the libel in the Palestinian psyche, the official PA daily printed this cartoon last week: 

Viewed from right to left the cartoon shows an Israeli soldier with a pickax in his hands, facing a giant Palestinian protecting the Dome of the Rock and stopping the soldier. When turned away the Israeli soldier is seen digging under the Dome of the Rock with the pickax.

Text in panel 1: “When they do not succeed in standing before its residents…”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 10, 2020]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented the dissemination of this libel for more than a decade. Hamas too has repeated it for years, like in this animation from 2010: