PA TV falsely claims that Israel is imposing a fake Jewish history on Jerusalem and its holy sites
Official PA TV program We Will Not Leave
Jerusalem history expert Rubin Abu Shamsieh: “The Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall of the Temple Mount) is an inseparable part of the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque… It is thought that its original part is from a very ancient period, perhaps the Roman or Byzantine Period, in addition to the reuse of these stones in the Umayyad Period. But the upper part of this structure is from the Ottoman Period. The Jews think first and foremost that the original part of the Al-Buraq Wall that is visible, whose width reaches approximately 70 meters, is from the Second Temple that was built in the period of [King] Herod in 19 BCE. This part – not one of the archaeologists has confirmed that it is from the period that the Jews claim that it has been present since then (sic., archaeological evidence has proven the Western Wall’s age).” …
Orient House Map Department Manager Khalil Al-Tafakji: “The truth is that what is happening in Jerusalem, and especially in the Old City, is that the Israeli side wants to change the appearance of this area. It has found nothing connected to the Israeli side above ground(sic., an abundance of archaeological evidence proves Jewish history in Jerusalem), and therefore it has gone underground and created a new city underground, which you can enter from the tunnels until you come out from another area without seeing another person or even sunlight. At the same time, it is causing a fundamental change in the Al-Buraq Wall area…
Today it wants to put a Jewish touch there, so that every visitor who comes from abroad will see these antiquities and speak about Jewish antiquities and will not speak about Arab-Islamic antiquities.” …
Archaeologist and Fatah member Abir Zayyad: “All the sites here are disseminated and marketed in favor of the Zionist vision and thought to strengthen their presence and establish a fait accompli by force. This is destruction for these antiquities and this civilization, whether in the Damascus Gate area, the Al-Buraq Wall area, or the Mughrabi Gate area.” …
Khalil Al-Tafakji: “When we see that the Israeli side has gone underground and begun to find antiquities that belong to the Israeli side, it is telling the world: ‘These are our antiquities, this is our history from thousands of years ago.’
Afterwards it went to another place outside of this framework – establishing the Kedem display. As you know, Kedem is a display composed of many layers [of an underground wall]. The tourist who comes can visit this area. The Israeli side tells its narrative in sound and pictures that ‘We were here thousands of years ago. Solomon was here, David was here and wrote his Psalms.’ Therefore, it wants to connect a number of foundations. The first foundation is the historical foundation – ‘We had an existence here' – that is connected to the religious foundation, which is the existence of the Temple. The third foundation is the political foundation in the sense that Jerusalem is under Israeli control.”