Denial of Jewish history by former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

JEWISH-TEMPLE (ETC.) DENIAL WATCH: The former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is currently indulging in wholesale denial of Jewish history in Palestine, evidently in response to the recent opening of the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park:

Not one stone found relating to Jerusalem’s alleged Jewish history

Chairman of the Suprerme Islamic Council in Jerusalem Dr. Ekrima Sabri has declared that after twenty-five years of digging, archaeologists are unanimous that not a single stone has been found related to Jerusalem’s alleged Jewish history.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Chairman of the Suprerme Islamic Council in Jerusalem Dr. Ekrima Sabri has declared that after twenty-five years of digging, archaeologists are unanimous that not a single stone has been found related to Jerusalem’s alleged Jewish history.

Sheikh Sabri said Israel’s opening of a Biblical park south of Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem was only a further attempt to erase the Arab-Islamic identity of the region, Sabri said.

Israeli authorities have been building the Biblical park atop the Umayyad palaces in Jerusalem. But Sabri said that archaeologists agree that the stones along the southern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque are remains of the Umayyad palaces, proving that the entire area is an Islamic endowment.

“We do not recognize any change to the status of Jerusalem, and we reserve our religious, historic, geographic, and cultural heritage in the city, no matter how long or how many generations succeed,” Sabri said.

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More on Dr. Ekrima Sabri here and here and links.

I have responded to these bogus historical claims here and here and often elsewhere in PaleoJudaica.

Cross-file under "Junk History."

UPDATE (6/24/11): Todd Bolin has some trenchant commentary.