Op-ed in PA daily: Jerusalem was never the Hebrew name of a Jewish city, and the Hebrew language never existed
Headline: "The Blathering Intellectual"
Op-ed by Editor-in-Chief Mahmoud Abu Al-Hija
"Those who founded Jerusalem were the Jebusite and Canaanite Palestinians, and they inhabited it in the fifth millennium BC. First, it was called Jebus, and then 'Ur salem' after its Canaanite king, and 'Ur Salem' is a completely Arab name. After the Islamic conquest, it was renamed 'Aelia [Capitolina]' (Roman colony built on the ruins of Jerusalem in 136 AD following the Bar Kochba Revolt, conquered by the Persians in 614 AD –Ed.) and this name appeared in the Pact of Umar (i.e., pact signed between the Muslims and Christians of Syria after the Muslim conquest of 637). Later on, during the Abbasid period (i.e., third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic Prophet Muhammad), it was called Bait Al-Maqdis, and this name appeared in the poems of Abu-Nuwas (i.e., classical Arabic poet born in the 8thcentury BC). The holy city did not carry any Hebrew name in history, and the Hebrew language did not exist there or anywhere else, it was Aramaic.”
Op-ed by Editor-in-Chief Mahmoud Abu Al-Hija
"Those who founded Jerusalem were the Jebusite and Canaanite Palestinians, and they inhabited it in the fifth millennium BC. First, it was called Jebus, and then 'Ur salem' after its Canaanite king, and 'Ur Salem' is a completely Arab name. After the Islamic conquest, it was renamed 'Aelia [Capitolina]' (Roman colony built on the ruins of Jerusalem in 136 AD following the Bar Kochba Revolt, conquered by the Persians in 614 AD –Ed.) and this name appeared in the Pact of Umar (i.e., pact signed between the Muslims and Christians of Syria after the Muslim conquest of 637). Later on, during the Abbasid period (i.e., third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic Prophet Muhammad), it was called Bait Al-Maqdis, and this name appeared in the poems of Abu-Nuwas (i.e., classical Arabic poet born in the 8thcentury BC). The holy city did not carry any Hebrew name in history, and the Hebrew language did not exist there or anywhere else, it was Aramaic.”