Jerusalem,
August 7, 2001 Dear Friends, The Arabs are destroying the remains of the First and Second Temples on the Temple Mount. We ask you to read the following petition and add your name. Nadia and Ruth *************************** The Temple Mount Preservation Act of 2001 (H.R. 2566) is a brand new bill which was introduced at a press conference at the Sam Rayburn Building in Washington D.C. July 19th 2001 by Congressman Eric J. Cantor (R-7th /VA). The bill seeks to protect the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, by halting all funding to the PA, unless the President certifies that all excavation on the Temple Mount has stopped! THIS BILL NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT! Enclosed is a world wide petition, that seeks one million names of people everywhere, not only US citizens. This petition will be hand delivered to selected members of Congress, and will help elicit their support for the bill. TO JOIN THE PETITION, please submit your name, email address and city and country of residence, and email it to Shoshanna Walker rosewalk@concentric.net or Murray Kahl kahl1@gate.net OR sign up at http://www.templeinstitute.org/current-events/temple-mount-preservation-act-petition.html Please circulate the petition, and if you print it, please fax it to 516-371-6669 (in NY) PLEASE CALL REP CANTOR to thank him 202-224-3121 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- PETITION TO HALT ALL US ASSISTANCE TO THE PA AND ITS INSTRUMENTALITIES We support H.R. 2566 in the U.S. House of Representatives and ask that these attempts by the Palestinian Authority to desecrate Temple Mount in Israel be treated as an affront to the religious and historical basis of Christianity and Judaism. We applaud Congressman Eric J. Cantor (R-7th /VA) for initiating this bill, and we respectfully request that all Congressmen will support the bill and bring it to fruition. Names and Addresses (City and Country): _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ FULL TEXT OF H.R. 2566 107TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2566 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mr. CANTOR introduced the following bill A BILL To prohibit assistance from being provided to the Palestinian Authority or its instrumentalities unless the President certifies that no excavation of the Temple Mount in Israel is being conducted. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE This act may be cited as the "Temple Mount Preservation Act of 2001." FINDINGS. The Congress makes the following findings: (1) The Temple Mount, located in the heart of Jerusalem, Israel, has great religious significance to the world's three major monotheistic religions, and increasing violence, religious intolerance, and archeological neglect threaten to destroy this sacred site. (2) According to the Jewish faith, the Temple Mount (Har ha-Bayit in Hebrew) is the location where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, in the ultimate test of his commitment to God. The Temple Mount was also the site of the first and second Holy Temples, and it is a basic tenet of Judaism that it will be the site of the third Holy Temple. (3) According to Christianity, Jesus was dedicated on the Temple Mount in the Second Temple in accordance with the Law of Moses. He referred to the Biblical Temple as his Father's House, and was tempted by the Devil at the pinnacle of the Temple Mount. (4) According to Islam, the Prophet Muhammad ascended into Heaven riding al-Burak from the edge of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif in Arabic). Al-Aqsa Mosque is located on the site of the Prophet's ascent and is the third holiest site in Islam. The Dome of the Rock was built over the Holiest Rock, considered in Muslim traditions as the Center or Core of the Universe. (5) In June 1967, Jerusalem once again became a united city under Israel's sovereignty. Since that time, Israel has been legally responsible for the Temple Mount and has been respectful of the religious practices of Jews, Christians, and Muslims with regard to this site. (6) The Israeli Government elected to delegate the daily oversight of the Temple Mount to the Temple Mount Waqf (Religious Council), whose responsibility dates back to 1432, in tacit cooperation with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan because of the King's capacity as the Custodian of Haram al-Sharif. In 1994, Jordan's role as custodian of Muslim religious interests was codified in the Israeli-Jordanian Peace Treaty. (7) In the aftermath of the 1993 Oslo Accords, Yassir Arafat's Palestinian Authority asserted pre-eminence on the Temple Mount through the subversion of the Waqf and by coercing the Jordan-affiliated officials and clergymen off the Temple Mount. Arafat personally nominated the virulently anti-Semitic and anti-American Mufti Ikrima Sabri as the Imam of al-Aqsa Mosque. In May 1998, Sabri declared that the Jews have no right to the Temple Mount. (8) In 1996, the Israeli Islamic Movement sponsored the expansion of the underground al-Marawani Mosque on the Temple Mount. The excavation conducted for this expansion extended beyond the original compound, and an ancient underground structure dating from the period of the Second Temple (circa 515 B.C. (B.C.E.) to 70 A.D. (C.E.), known as the Western Hulda Gate passageway was converted into a mosque. (9) In early 1998, the Waqf, controlled by the Palestinian Authority, began further excavation. A major underground mosque hall was inaugurated in August 1999 and an emergency exit was opened to a mosque located on the Temple Mount. The exit is 18,000 square feet in size and up to 36 feet deep, and thousands of tons of ancient fills from the site were dumped into the Kidron Valley. Archeologists have subsequently determined that artifacts dumped into the Kidron Valley from the Temple Mount dated from the period of the First Temple (circa 22 1006 B.C. (B.C.E.) to 586 B.C. (B.C.E.). (10) In mid 2000, Arafat deployed onto the Temple Mount armed and unarmed security personnel of Jibril Rajoub's Preventive Security Forces in violation of numerous past agreements with Israel. Rajoub's forces evicted the Waqf's personnel and consolidated Arafat's control and ability to wage the Intifadah (''uprising'') against Israel. (11) In February and March of 2001, an ancient arched structure built against the Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount enclosure was razed by bulldozers in order to further enlarge the emergency gate of the new mosque at the Stables of Solomon. (12) In early May, Arafat ordered that the underground halls under the Temple Mount be unified into a single fortified space that would be both the largest mosque ever built on Haram al-Sharif and a springboard for the forthcoming Palestinian struggle for control of the Temple Mount. Given the haste and unsupervised nature of the ongoing excavation and construction work, there is great fear that the foundations of the two Holy Mosques will be severely damaged to the point of collapse. (13) The actions of Yassir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority threaten to eliminate all historical evidence of Jewish activity on the Temple Mount and serve to discredit Israeli claims of sovereignty over the Temple Mount. (14) The massive excavation and unsupervised destruction of artifacts discovered within the Temple Mount are undeniable affronts to the concepts of religious freedom and tolerance that must be respected in order to achieve and maintain peace in the Middle East. The destruction of the Temple Mount, which threatens to incite more violence, is destroying sacred artifacts and jeopardizing the ability of Americans to understand and promote their Judeo-Christian heritage. SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FUNDS FOR PALESTINIAN AUTHORITIES AND ITS INSTRUMENTALITIES (a) PROHIBITION. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds appropriated or otherwise made available in any Act of Congress may be used for any form of assistance to the Palestinian Authority or any instrumentality of the Palestinian Authority unless the President has certified to the Congress that no excavation of the Temple Mount in Israel is being conducted. (b) ANNUAL RECERTIFICATION REQUIRED. Any certification by the President under subsection (a) shall expire on the last day of the fiscal year in which it is made. (c) NATIONAL SECURITY WAIVER. The President may waive the prohibition contained in subsection (a) for a fiscal year if the President certifies in writing to the Congress that such waiver is in the national security interests of the United States. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Press Briefing - Introduction of the Temple Mount Preservation Act - Remarks by Congressman Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) Office of Congressman Eric Cantor (VA-07) For Immediate Release Contact: Jenn Mascott Thursday, July 19, 2001 (202) 225-2815 WASHINGTON, July 19- Thank you for coming today and for your interest in this important issue. I also want to thank my colleagues and friends, Congressman Pence and Congressman Weiner, for joining me. I am particularly grateful for your interest in the destruction of the Temple Mount and what I view as one of the most unprecedented attacks on religious heritage of our time. Connected with such destruction is extreme religious intolerance - contrary to the Jeffersonian principles of the free exercise of religion held dear by all Americans. This issue has implications not only for my constituents in Virginia, but for individuals across the globe. Thousands of years of Judeo-Christian heritage is under siege at this most sacred of sites to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The Temple Mount is the site of the Biblical temple built by King Solomon, as well as the temple visited by Jesus as a child and again as an adult. Today, I have information produced by archeologists that provides hard evidence of the destruction on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In 1967, Jerusalem was united under Israel's sovereignty. Since that time, Israel has been legally responsible for the Temple Mount. The government has allowed equal access for all religions. Shortly after the 1967 War, the Israeli government delegated authority for the daily oversight of the Temple Mount to the Waqf, a Muslim Foundation, in tacit cooperation with Jordan. Jordan's role as custodian of Muslim religious interests was codified in the Israel-Jordanian peace treaty of 1994. In the aftermath of the negotiations surrounding the Oslo Accords, Chairman Yasser Arafat took control of the Waqf, bringing about a change in the policy of free access for all religions on the Temple Mount. He began by replacing the Jordanian-affiliated clergymen and officials and named Mufti Ikrima Sabri the chief Muslim administrator. Sabri, known for his anti-Semitic and anti-American views, has since declared that the Jews have no right to the Temple Mount. More recently, Arafat has denied Jewish and Christian worshipers access to the historic Temple Mount and has restricted media from visiting the site. Beginning in early 1998, Arafat's Waqf has permitted large-scale bulldozing and destruction of the Temple Mount antiquities. Thousands of tons of fill have been unearthed and simply dumped into the nearby Kidron Valley. Archeologists have verified these artifacts date from the period of the First Temple [circa 1006 BC (BCE) to 586 BC (BCE)]. Anybody with any reasonable perspective would hold that the Temple Mount should be preserved and any disturbance thereon closely monitored. But now, there are bulldozers and stone-cutting machines hacking away every day. I know that in my District, we are known for historical sites, such as Montpelier, the home of former President James Madison. I can tell you that bulldozers come nowhere near the residence, or its estate. I just returned from Israel two weeks ago. While there, I met with individuals and government officials who verified the media reports of the destruction. The Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount is comprised of former government leaders, archeologists, and academics who are concerned and have banned together to fight the destruction of the religious site. I saw ancient ruins unearthed from the time of the First and Second Temples. I saw construction equipment and materials protruding from the top of the Temple Mount, visible from the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount. I met with the Mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, who confirmed the pattern of destruction. At this time, I'd like to turn to the pictures, which reflect the evidence compiled by these archeologists. The first series of photographs depict the Temple Mount site as it has evolved since the mid-1990s. Particular attention should be given to the heavily treed landscape early on, and later, the paved plaza replacing the trees. Attention should focus on the southeastern area of the Temple Mount, under which an area called Solomon's Stables was connected with the Second Temple. In this area, Arafat has directed the destruction of what may have been part of the Temple complex. The Waqf's action destroyed physical remnants of the religious site, including arched entranceways and colonnades believed to have played a role in religious life two thousand years ago. The pictures depict bulldozers crushing evidence of the religious site and new construction masking any trace of the temple. There have been several press accounts reporting this grand-scale destruction of the Temple Mount, the full text of which are in your packets. I would like to bring your attention to one in particular. This is from an Op-Ed carried by the National Review in October 2000, in which the author stated, "Moreover, the Waqf has devoted the past 33 years to an extensive campaign of excavation, systematically destroying any evidence of Jewish and Christian presence on the Temple Mount, so that they could argue - as they now do - that it has always been an exclusively Muslim place." Further evidencing the calculated plan of Arafat's to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage, we saw in the Boston Globe in March 2001 a quote from Sheik Ikrima Sabri: "The Temple Mount was never there. There is not one bit of proof to establish that. We do not recognize that the Jews have any right to the wall or to one inch of the sanctuary. Jews are greedy to control our mosque. If they every try to, it will be the end of Israel." The bottom line is, Chairman Arafat's intent is to deny access to the Temple Mount for any individuals other than followers of Islam. In addition, the evidence produced today clearly shows that Arafat is intent on erasing Judeo-Christian connections to the holy site. And that is why I am introducing today the Temple Mount Preservation Act that would cut off all aid to Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority until all unauthorized excavations of the Temple Mount are stopped. Currently, the United States is on track to send $125 million in aid this year to the United States Agency for International Development - USAID - for the Palestinians. This money is part of a $400 million package over three years appropriated by Congress in 2000. Additionally, the U.S. annually provides approximately $75 million in indirect aid to the Palestinians - again administered through the USAID. WOMEN FOR ISRAEL'S TOMORROW (WOMEN IN GREEN) P.O.B. 7352, JERUSALEM 91072 Israel Tel. 02-624-9887 Fax: 02-624-5380 http://www.womeningreen.org |