Flashback in Jewish History: Jordanian Desecration of Jerusalem 1947-1967

Hussein, King of Jordan, in a speech in Beirut on 24, August 1967, claimed "the right faithfully to guard the Holy Places that our Arab band has known how to guard these thousand years and more." This is nothing more than a mockery of the facts of the Jordanian desecration of Jewish and Christian holy sites.

Before the UN passed its resolution 29 in 1947 supporting the establishment of the State of Israel, the Arab Legion of Jordan launched an attack on Jerusalem and tried to besiege the Jewish majority by cutting of its supply of water, food and by blocking all roads. The Jordanians bombarded the city and Egyptian and Iraqi troops advanced from the south to mmet with the Jordanians for the final offensive.

The brave Jewish warriors managed to repel the Iraqi and Egyptian forces but the Old City fell to superiour Jordanian firepower. Once the Jordanians had conquered the Jewish Quarter, it annexed the city, expelled the ancient Jewish population and set out to destroy every last vestige of the long and proud Jewish connection to Jerusalem. The Jordanian forces desecrated 34 out of 35 Jewish houses of worship including the 16th century Hurva synagogue of Rabbi Yehuda He-Hasid and the Yochanan ben Zakai synagogue. For the first time in centuries, not one Jew lived in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. The Jordanians ignobly burned hundreds of ancient Torah scrolls, thousands of holy books, razed tens of syangogues or used them as stables, coops or latrines and paved a highway through the millenial-old Mount of Olives cemetary, using centuries old tombstones as pavement. During these 19 long years, Jews were forbidden from going to pray at the Western Wall and had to climb the Mount of Olives just to get a glimpse of the holy site. Nor were Jews the only victims. Very limited numbers of Christians were allowed to make pilgrimages to their holy sites during Easter and Christmas. There were severe restrictions on the building of Christian schools and the Qur'an was required to be taught in all of them. The number of Christians in Jerusalem declined from 25,000 in 1949 to less than 13,000 in June 1967.

This travesty came to an end with the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967. After 2000 years of closing every Passover seder and Yom Kippur fast with the words 'Next Year in Jerusalem!', Israel's leaders plan to divide Jerusalem up. The last time that Jerusalem was in non-Jewish hands, it was desecrated. The Pali. Arabs have a very bad track record themselves on protecting the holy sites of other faiths. When Israel handed over Joseph's Tomb to the Palestinian Authority, it was torn apart and the holy books inside burned. The Islamic wakf is engaging in illegal excavation on the Temple Mount and destroying priceless archaeological evidence. Tens of churches were bombed this year. Think! There are absolutely no Jews living in any Arab-majority city in Judea and Samaria. There is no Jewish presence in the Shechem, now known as Nablus, the site of Joseph's Tomb. The Jewish community of Hebron where the Tomb of the Patriarchs is numbers in the hundreds and lives under intense security.

Those who fail to heed the past are condemned to repeat it.

Cross-posted to Goat's Barnyard