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Temple denial is the claim that the successiveTemples in Jerusalem either did not exist or they did exist but were not constructed on the site of theTemple Mount. This claim has been advanced by Islamic political leaders, religious figures, intellectuals, and authors.[1]
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.[2][3][4] According to Jewish tradition and scripture, theFirst Temple was built by KingSolomon, the son of KingDavid, in 957 BCE, and was destroyed by theNeo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. TheSecond Temple was constructed under the auspices ofZerubbabel in 516 BCE, was renovated by King Herod, andwas destroyed[broken anchor] by theRoman Empire in 70 CE. Scholars agree that the two temples existed on the Temple Mount during these time periods.[5] While no scientific excavations have ever been conducted on the Temple Mount,extensive physical evidence for the Second Temple was found in excavations in its vicinity.
Among Muslims, the whole plaza is revered and it is referred to as "the Noble Sanctuary" or the al-Aqsa Mosque, and it ranks asthe third holiest site in Islam. Muslims believe that it is the place from whichMuhammad began hisNight Journey.[6][7] The plaza is dominated by two monumental structures originally built during theRashidun and earlyUmayyad caliphates after the city's capture in 661 CE:[8] theal-Aqsa Mosque and theDome of the Rock, near the center of the hill, which was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in the world. It stands where past Jewish temples are commonly believed to have stood.[9]
Early Islam regarded theFoundation Stone as the location of Solomon's Temple, and the construction of theDome of the Rock on the Temple Mount sought to glorify Jerusalem by presenting Islam as a continuation of Judaism and Christianity.[10] Muslim interpretations of the Quran agree that the Mount is the site of the Temple originally built bySolomon,considered a prophet in Islam, that was later destroyed.[11][12] After the construction, Muslims believe, the temple was used for the worship of the one God by many prophets of Islam, including Jesus.[13][14][15] Other Muslim scholars have used the Torah (calledTawrat in Arabic) to expand on the details of the temple.[16] The termBayt al-Maqdis (orBayt al-Muqaddas), which frequently appears as a name of Jerusalem in early Islamic sources, is a cognate of the Hebrew termbēt ha-miqdāsh (בית המקדש), the Temple in Jerusalem.[17][18][19]Mujir al-Din, a 15th century Jerusalemite chronicler, mentions an earlier tradition related by al-Wasti, according which "after David built many cities and the situation of thechildren of Israel was improved, he wanted to construct Bayt al-Maqdis and build a dome over the rock in the place thatAllah sanctified in Aelia."[20]
According toYitzhak Reiter, "during the twentieth century, against the backdrop of the struggle between the Zionist and the Palestinian-Arab national movements, a new Arab-Muslim trend of denying Jewish attachment to the Temple Mount arose".[20]
A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, a booklet published in 1925 by the "Supreme Muslim Council", a body established by British authorities to administerwaqfs and headed byAmin al-Husayni during theBritish Mandate period, states on page 4: "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.'(2 Samuel 24:25)"[21]
According to theNew York Times, after the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Waqf's guidebooks have been stripped of references to Solomon's Temple, whose location it had previously described as 'beyond dispute.'"[22]
According toDennis Ross, at the2000 Camp David Summit, then-Palestinian National Authority PresidentYasser Arafat told then-American PresidentBill Clinton that "Solomon's Temple was not in Jerusalem, butNablus."[23][24] In the recollection of then-Prime Minister of IsraelEhud Barak, referring to a conversation he had with Clinton, Arafat said to the American President, "there is nothing there" (i.e., no trace of a temple on the Temple Mount).[25]
Ross later wrote about an August 2000 meeting he had with Arafat: "Since we would be discussing the options on the Haram, I anticipated that Arafat might well again declare that the Temple—the most sacred place in Jewish tradition—did not exist inJerusalem, but was inNablus. ... I wantedGamal, a Christian ofCoptic origin who was originally from Egypt, to tell Arafat that this was an outrageous attempt to delegitimize the Israeli connection to Jerusalem. ... Finally, after nearly ten minutes of increasing invective, I intervened and said 'Mr. Chairman, regardless of what you think, the President of the United Statesknows that the Temple existed in Jerusalem. If he hears you denying its existence there, he will never again take you seriously. My advice to you is never again raise this issue in his presence.'"[26]
On September 25, 2003, when a delegation of Arab leaders from northern Israel visited theMuqata'a compound in Ramallah to show solidarity during theSecond Intifada, they were surprised when Arafat lectured them for approximately a quarter-hour on al-Aqsa, claiming that the Jewish temple was not in Jerusalem, but inYemen. He claimed to have visited Yemen and been shown the location of Solomon's Temple.[27]
On May 15, 2023, during a speech to the United Nations,Mahmoud Abbas,President of the Palestinian Authority, claimed there is no proof of Jewish ties to the area of the al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem. He stated that "They [Israel] dug under al-Aqsa… they dug everywhere and they could not find anything".[28]
In an interview with an Israeli newspaper in 1998,Ikrima Sabri, thenGrand Mufti of Jerusalem, stated, "I heard that your Temple was in Nablus or perhapsBethlehem."[27] In an interview toDie Welt on January 17, 2001, Sabri further claimed that: "There is not the slightest sign of the previous existence of the Jewish temple on this site. There is not a single stone in the entire city that refers to Jewish history [...] It is the art of the Jews to deceive the world. They can't fool us with that. There is not a single stone in the Western Wall that has anything to do with Jewish history. The Jews have no legitimate claim to this wall, either religiously or historically."[29]
In 2002,Zaki al-Ghul, titular mayor ofEast Jerusalem, claimed in the Al-Quds conference inAmman that King Solomon reigned over theArabian Peninsula and erected his Temple there, rather than in Jerusalem.[27]
In 2015,Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the current Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, said in an interview with Israel'sChannel 2 that there has never been a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, and the site has been home to a mosque "from the creation of the world". He also claimed that "This is the Al-Aqsa Mosque that Adam, peace be upon him, or during his time, the angels built".[30]
Dore Gold, president of theJerusalem Center for Public Affairs and formerIsraeli ambassador to the United Nations, used the term "Temple denial" in his 2007 book,The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City.Yitzhak Reiter describes the growing tendency of Islamic authorities to deny the existence of the Jewish Temples on the Temple Mount, characterizing it as part of a campaign to increase the status of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in Islam as a part of the effort to turn Jerusalem into a Muslim city under Arab governance.[1]TheNew York Times writes that "Temple denial, increasingly common among Palestinian leaders, also has a long history: After Israel became a state in 1948, theWaqf removed all references to KingSolomon's Temple from its guidebooks. Previously, it said that Solomon's Temple was located on the site, a fact which was 'beyond dispute'."[22][31]
David Hazony described the phenomenon as "a campaign of intellectual erasure... aimed at undermining the Jewish claim to any part of the land", and he compared the phenomenon toHolocaust denial.[32][33]
In January 2017, newly electedSecretary-General of the United NationsAntónio Guterres made clear reference to the fact that a temple once stood on the Temple Mount, and positively asserted its destruction during thesiege of Jerusalem in 70 CE during a speech commemoratingInternational Holocaust Remembrance Day, and in subsequent remarks, including an interview on Israel Radio.[34][35] High-ranking PLO and Palestinian government officials demanded that Guterres recant this claim and submit an apology to the Palestinian people.[36][35] In response, Guterres instead directly affirmed the existence of aHoly Temple on the Temple Mount, and was condemned by the Palestine National Authority for violating, "all legal, diplomatic and humanitarian customs", and chastised Guterres for overstepping his role as secretary-general.[37]
Prime MinisterJean Castex ofFrance read a speech on behalf ofPresidentEmmanuel Macron to theRepresentative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) and said "I am concerned about the United Nations resolution on Jerusalem which continues to deliberately and against all evidence remove Jewish terminology from the Temple Mount. You know my attachment to Jerusalem, where I went several times as President or before becoming one. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, I have never stopped saying that. This in no way precludes recognizing and respecting the attachment of other religions to this city, and it is in this spirit that I myself walked through the Old City in 2020 and visited each of the Holy Places".[38]
Many Islamic scholars oppose Temple denialism. ImamAbdul Hadi Palazzi, leader of the Italian Muslim Assembly and a co-founder and a co-chairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship, quotes theQuran to support Judaism's special connection to the Temple Mount. According to Palazzi, "[t]he most authoritative Islamic sources affirm the Temples". He adds that Jerusalem is sacred to Muslims because of its prior holiness to Jews and its standing as home to the biblical prophets and kings David and Solomon, all of whom he says are sacred figures also in Islam. He claims that the Quran "expressly recognizes that Jerusalem plays the same role for Jews that Mecca has for Muslims".[39] Furthermore, both classical Islamic literature and Muslims' scripture recognize the existence of the Temple – albeit as the "Farthest Mosque" rather than Beyt al-Maqdis – and its importance to Judaism.[40][41][42][39]
To the Jews the Temple Mount is the holiest place on Earth, the place where God manifested himself to King David and where two Jewish temples - Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple - were located.
The holy house has most commonly assumed to be located on the same spot as the Moslem holy structure known as the Dome of the Rock. This assumption has been held for centuries for the following reasons: The rock out-cropping under the Dome of the Rock is the main natural feature within the Haram enclosure; the Dome of the Rock is centrally located within the esplanade, and, at 2,440 feet above sea level, the Dome of the Rock is one of the highests point within the area.
The HS is also the third holiest site in Islam. Early Islam identified the location of the Holy Rock (known as the Foundation Stone among Jews) with the Temple of Solomon. The Dome of the Rock, built by the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan at the end of the seventh century CE, was aimed to glorify the place with the understanding of Islam as a continuation of Judaism (and Christianity). Muslim writers related to the site with respect to its sacred continuity. For example, the fifteenth-century Arab historian of Jerusalem Mujir al-Din quotes an early tradition narrated by al-Wasti stating, "after David built many cities and the situation of the children of Israel was improved, he wanted to construct Bayt al-Maqdis [Jerusalem] and build a dome over the rock in the place that Allah sanctified in Aelia [the Roman Byzantine name of Jerusalem]". In another place, he writes, "Suleiman (Solomon) built Masjid Bayt al-Maqdis by the order of his father Da'ud (David)."However, during the twentieth century, against the backdrop of the struggle between the Zionist and the Palestinian-Arab national movements, a new Arab-Muslim trend of denying Jewish attachment to the Temple Mount arose. On the Jewish side, meanwhile, some nationalists and academics also belittled the importance to Muslims of the sacred site in particular and of Jerusalem in general, highlighting the fact that Jerusalem's name never appears in the Qur'an and that the city never served as an Arab political center.
The HS is also the third holiest site in Islam. Early Islam identified the location of the Holy Rock (known as the Foundation Stone among Jews) with the Temple of Solomon. The Dome of the Rock, built by the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan at the end of the seventh century CE, was aimed to glorify the place with the understanding of Islam as a continuation of Judaism (and Christianity). Muslim writers related to the site with respect to its sacred continuity. For example, the fifteenth-century Arab historian of Jerusalem Mujir al-Din quotes an early tradition narrated by al-Wasti stating, "after David built many cities and the situation of the children of Israel was improved, he wanted to construct Bayt al-Maqdis [Jerusalem] and build a dome over the rock in the place that Allah sanctified in Aelia [the Roman Byzantine name of Jerusalem]". In another place, he writes, "Suleiman (Solomon) built Masjid Bayt al-Maqdis by the order of his father Da'ud (David)."However, during the twentieth century, against the backdrop of the struggle between the Zionist and the Palestinian-Arab national movements, a new Arab-Muslim trend of denying Jewish attachment to the Temple Mount arose. On the Jewish side, meanwhile, some nationalists and academics also belittled the importance to Muslims of the sacred site in particular and of Jerusalem in general, highlighting the fact that Jerusalem's name never appears in the Qur'an and that the city never served as an Arab political center.
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