DESECRATION OF BIBLICAL HOLY SITES
By Shachar Ben Avraham             Capture of biblical sites.  In a new trend, the PA have stepped up   their efforts to take over  biblical sites sacred to Jews and Christians. In Jericho somebody set the  ancient Jewish synagogue on fire, and crowds prevented fire trucks from putting  out the blaze. In Nablus, the biblical  Shechem Palestinians took control of   Joseph's Tomb after days  of fierce fighting. According to the Oslo Accords, the tomb  was considered a holy site. After  the PA took it over last October, they immediately converted it  into a  mosque.   This was quickly followed by calls  to take over  Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and  the Cave of Machpelah in  Hebron, the burial place of the partriarchs. PA terrorists launched an attack on Rachel's Tomb on December 5   and came within 30 feet of  taking the site.   BATTLE OF JOSEPH'S TOMB These sites are holy to those who honor the Bible. But since islam considers itself superior to both Judaism and Christianity, its followers have no problem usurping Jewish and Christian sites and changing them  into Muslim sites. Islam teaches that Jews and Christians twisted the faith given them by God  and that allah gave the final revelation to Muhammad.  It also considers  Jewish and Christian heroes-such as Moses, David, and Jesus-good muslims  whose teachings lead to Islam. Never mind that islam did not even exist before the seventh century. A moslim mosque in Bethlehem's Manger Square is another example. The PNA has taken over Bethlehem,  Hebron, Nablus (Shechem),  and Jericho, which were Jewish towns in biblical times, in an attempt to extinguish the last vestiges of Jewish life and presence in these cities.                                   BETHLEHEM                                 HEBRON NABLUS                                                     JERICHO But the PA revisionist history of the Temple Mount  is the worst example. The Temple Mount, with remains of Solomon's and  Herod's temples, is the central holy site for both Jews and Christians. Three mosques exist now on this site, and a fourth one is being constructed  at the Golden Gate. Muslim  workers continue to dispose of artifact-rich rubble from  the site, according to Eilat Mazar, professor at the Institute of Archaeology  at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The construction process is destroying not only the  Temple Mount artifacts, but also layers of biblical history, and Israel is unable to stop it. Even though  Israel left control of the Temple Mount in the hands of the WAQF after the 1967 liberation of Jerusalem, PA officials refuse to acknowledge the importance of  this site to Jews. Here is  what the official PNA Web site says about the Western Wall, the surviving  remnant of Herod's Temple complex: Al-Boraq Wall: "It is part of the exterior facade of   the western wall of  Al-Aqsa Mosque. Al-Boraq, a creature which carried  Mohammad during his ascension to heaven, was tied to this wall. Some Orthodox religious Jews consider it as a holy place for them, and claim that  the wall is part of their  temple, [but] all historic studies and archeological  excavations have failed to  find any proof for such a claim. In order to undermine  the foundations of  Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Israeli government has converted   it into a religious shrine  for Jews, prohibiting non-Jews to enter it, except for a limited number of  tourists.  This revisionist description not only flies in the   face of history and  archaeology, but also has the more sinister motive of  eradicating the biblical   history of the area, which undermines the validity of  Judaism and Christianity." The PA has dubbed the current disturbances the "Intifada of Al-Aqsa." Intifada  is the Arabic word for "uprising," and Al-Aqsa is the mosque in Jerusalem that observant Muslims regard as their third-holiest site,  after Mecca and Medina. It seems obvious that the  PA cannot protect the holy sites of Jews and Christians, or guarantee safe and free access to the  sites.