- 02 Nov 2015
Al-Haram Al-Sharif/The Temple Mount and the emerging Muslim-Jewish Religious Conflict
Abstract
Senior Israeli security personnel, Israeli and Palestinian political leaders, rabbis and imams havebeen warning for years that the Jewish-Muslim conflict over Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif could trigger a devastating worldwide religious war. Few, however, have paid much attention to the underlying processes propelling the parties inexorably towards impending catastrophe: growing Islamic anti-Semitism or Judeo-phobia in the Arab and Muslim worlds on the one hand, and accelerated Jewish Islamophobia in Israel and the Diaspora on the other.
These destructive trends, which feed off each other, have intensified sharply since Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in June 1967. Israel’s triumphant return to Jerusalem’s religious heartland sparked heady euphoria in the Jewish world, and deep trauma amongst Muslims. The anti-Semitic wave gathered momentum the more Israeli governments and extremist Jewish groups were perceived as undermining the sanctity of the Haram and the status of East Jerusalem.
Parallel to the growing Islamic Judeo phobia, radical nationalist and religious messianic trends were developing in Israel, especially among Jews in the national religious movement. The more radical among them advocate the building of the Third Jewish Temple on Temple Mount on the ruins of the existing mosques. In the meantime they insist on the right to go up onto the mountain and pray, in violation of Israeli government agreements with the Muslim Waqf, which administers Muslim Holy places, on the Haram.
Nevertheless, on several occasions the Arab side offered Israel a way out of the Jerusalem dilemma based on divided sovereignty and agreed arrangements for the holy sites. Most importantly, in March 2002, all 22 Arab states backed the Saudi peace initiative offering Israel peace, security and normalization of ties on condition that it agrees to the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital. Unfortunately, only a few groups of Jews in Israel and the Diaspora have accepted the Arab/Muslim peace initiative, and have preached for a Jewish/Muslim peaceful existence in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
About the Speakers
Hebrew University
Moshe Ma’oz is a professor emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University. He has widely published works on the history and politics of Syria, Palestine, ethnic religious communities, Arab-Israeli and Muslim-Jewish relations, including: Asad: The Sphinx of Damascus; Syrian-Israel – From War to Peace Making; Palestinian Leadership on the West Bank; Middle Eastern Minorities; Meeting of Civilization – Muslims, Christians and Jewish; Muslim Attitude to Jews and Israel.
He was a visiting Professor/Fellow at many universities and research institutes in the US, Europe, Australia and China, including Oxford U. Harvard U. Brookings, USIP, NIAS (Holland). Ma’oz was born and educated in Israel, where he received his BA and MA degrees from Hebrew U.,Jerusalem, in Islamic and Middle East history. He received his DPhil from Oxford U. in ME Studies. He served as an adviser on Arab Affairs to the Israeli Government, and participated in many peace dialogues with Palestinian and other Arab scholars.
