The As-Sharif Archaeological Double Standard

The Temple Mount exists as a hotly disputed piece of real estate that most archaeologists can confirm was at one time a part of Solomon's Temple of God, perhaps the single most important site in Judaism if not one of the most significant cultural sites in archeology. There stands in the way one major problem here: the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock. These two structures have a dubious claim to their location at best, as was covered by the author in a previous article detailing the history of Jerusalem - but because of their "reference" in the Quran it has become a politically sensitive issue.

This has given rise to a deplorable double standard, accentuated in the al-Aqsa Intifada. What is the al-Aqsa Intifada? This is an important key into understanding what the author will call "the as-Sharif Archaeological Double Standard".

During President Clinton's attempts to force Israel to negotiate with terrorist leader Yasser Arafat (a policy the United States itself rejects) the topic of Eastern Jerusalem and the Temple Mount came up several times - Arafat refusing to yield on the topic of what he referred to as the "as-Sharif", the land on the Temple Mount where the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock are built. When Ehud Barak showed signs of caving to American pressure to yield the land to the Palestinians, Ariel Sharon made a historic visit there with his security forces.

Under Israeli law all citizens, Arab or Jew, had free access to any land officially under Israeli sovereignty. This essentially meant that you were allowed to drive from A to B without having to respect orthodox laws or any variant. An orthodox rabbi could hiss and cry at a Jew walking on the Temple Mount, but there is no law in Israel that forbids a Jew from there. This was chief on Ariel Sharon's tongue when he marched across the pathway up to the Temple Mount, where he was met by protesting Palestinians who had brought with them stones with which to kill the man.