CYNTHIA OZICK
4S
of former Mayor Teddy Kollek and Moshe Pearlman. Since it is written
in' English, you may conclude that it is a public relations enterprise for
visitors, pilgrims, and tourists: a book designed for the self-aggrandize–
ment of the Jewish state. In fact, I acquired it as long ago as
1970,
with
a card that read: "With the Compliments of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs"-which certainly should clinch its intent as national puffery.
Yet if this is its purpose, then the text is all the more remarkable. Begin
with two standard sentences-sentences you might surely expect in a
book of this kind: "Monotheism, the concept of good and evil, broth–
erly love, and the rule of law: these were the challenging precepts of the
ancient Hebrews. Jerusalem was the platform from which they were
launched."
But here are sentences you might not expect from such a devotedly
Jewish source : "There are few more spectacular sights in the world
today than the vision of the golden dome upon the Temple Mount seen
at dawn from the Mount of Olives." And:
This great shrine was built by the caliph Abd el-Malik of the
Umayyad dynasty, and was the work of Byzantine architects and
craftsmen of the region.
It
underwent considerable repairs in the
centuries that followed, and received numerous decorative addi–
tions; but this magnificent octagonal, gold-domed building is sub–
stantially the same today as it was when completed in the year
691.
There follow pages and pages of architectural descriptions of "this
superb Muslim shrine" and its history. Now all this is certainly tourist–
guide language-but what is extraordinary is that it comes not from a
Muslim authority, but from the pen of a Jewish mayor. Here is respect–
ful and abundant
civic
generosity; here is the spirit of the Noahide
Laws.
The Western Wall, as all the world knows, is the outer wall-a retain–
ing wall-of the Second Temple site, its sole remaining structure. And
here are the words of the
fatwa,
or religious edict, issued by Ikram
Sabri, mufti of the mosque whose beauty the Jewish mayor praised, and
whose history he recorded with scholarly meticulousness:
"It
is illegal
under Islamic law to call the wall the Western Wall instead of the Buraq
Wall. All Muslims and media outlets should adhere to the legitimate
term. We do not recognize any Jewish ownership of this wall, in addi–
tion to the fact that there is no connection of any stone of that wall to
Hebrew history, and occupying it does not give Israel legitimacy."
He concludes by warning that under Palestinian rule Jews will not
