The Shepherd Hotel~Lies vs Facts

Once again the world media is in an uproar because the old Shepherd Hotel in the Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood in Jerusalem was demolished--Oh, Wait--it was not the entire building--only the wing that had been added during the Jordanian occupation was taken down. However, according to the mainstream media the entire hotel was demolished "as part of "Israel's policy of ethnic cleansing". Once again the hysterics and lies take the front page.

The First Lie:
As Councilman Elisha Peleg (Likud) told reporters:
"As we were forced to preserve the building, we will turn it into the neighborhood synagogue and dedicate it to the memory of the Holocaust victims.

The synagogue will be doubly symbolic: It will replace the house of the mufti and it will mark the point where 78 physicians, nurses and patients were murdered on their way to Mount Scopus in 1948".

The "currently abandoned" Shepherd Hotel was legally purchased by Dr. Irving Moskowitz of the US back in 1985--years before Oslo reared its destructive head. His plans to build Jewish homes there met up with various bureaucratic and political obstacles, but now--25 years later--they have begun taking on physical shape and form. Moskowitz and his wife Cherna also purchased the land on which the Ma'aleh HaZeitim complex continues to be built, opposite the Mount of Olives. Although there are those claiming this is another Israeli "land grab" it is nothing of the sort. Let's look at facts...
  

Abandoned~The Shepherd Hotel

 The Hotel:
A bit of reading tells us that the building did not start out as a hotel. It was built in the 1930s as a home for Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who was the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem--the same one who led the murderous riots against the Jews in British Mandate Palestine.

 When the British Mandate government deported Al-Husseini, the building was confiscated and turned into a military outpost for the British Army. At the end of the British Mandate, the building was transferred to the ownership of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which expanded the original structure, only then did it become the Shepherd Hotel. Following the Six Day War, the hotel became the property of the Government of Israel. It was used by the Ministry of Justice, and as a district courthouse. On 05 November 1985, C & M properties legally purchased the building and surrounding land from the Government of Israel. With the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987, the Border Police leased the building and stayed there for about 15 years before moving to their new building alongside Highway One. Since then, and up to the present, the property has been abandoned.

Husseni with Hitler~21 November 1941

Haj Amin Al-Husseini: Born in 1893 in Jerusalem (then under Ottoman rule), Husseini had his first taste of Jihad in 1914 when he swore allegiance to the Ottoman Empire  during the Armenian genocide--where  1.5 million Christians were slaughtered. During World War II, Al-Husseini met with Hitler and mobilized Muslim support for the Nazis among Muslims. On his own, he established a unit that murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews in Yugoslavia.

The Muslim community had rejected Al-Husseini (he placed 4th in the vote) for the position of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, because he had no credible  Islamic education--he was neither a Sheikh (religiously accredited leader) nor an Alim (Islamic scholar). The British in their great wisdom appointed him anyway, making him the pre-eminent Arab power in Palestine at the time. 

In 1922 Al-Husseini restored the of Dome of the Rock (he also had it gold-plated for the 1st time) and Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.  Is only from this point in time that Jerusalem began to take on importance as  a Holy Muslim site to the Arab World. Muslims around the world pray while facing towards Mecca--which means that in Jerusalem, to this very day, their butts are turned towards their "Holy Golden Dome".

In 1928 he became a central figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, which preaches Wahhabi Islam, calling for violent means to rid the Muslim world of all non-Islamic elements.  Their vision was for a Pan-Islamic Empire--where strict Islamic law rules over all. Nothing much has changed. By 1929 he was organizing more riots, spreading rumors--anything to turn the Muslims against the Jews. It is during this time that the murder of Jews in Hebron (this Jewish community was over 2,000 years old) took place. In 1931 he created the World Islamic Congress. By 1933 Arab-Nazi groups were springing up all over the middle-east. Egypt's political slogan was a direct translation from  German Nazis: “One Folk, One Party, One Leader".  Al-Husseini would become the main leader of the 1936 riots, using the Nazi methodology of “systematic extermination” to eliminate opponents, including Muslims. His weapon of choice was suicide squads.

By 1937 he was on Hitler's payroll. He met with Benito Mussolini, the genocidal butcher of Ethiopians in Africa. Mussolini vowed to help with the Palestine cause against the Jews.  Al-Husseini also declared a Fatwa-Jihad against Britain. 

In 1941  Al-Husseini sent volunteers to the Iraqi Army for a Pro-Nazi Coup in Baghdad. He also met with Adolph Hitler and was actively involved in the decision to exterminate all Jews through the Final Solution. It is said that Hitler had been content to deport the Jews to Palestine, which would be a threat to Al-Husseini's stronghold, so he pushed (successfully) for the extermination of all European Jews.The legacy of this pillar of evil who, by the way, was Yasser Arafat’s teacher and Uncle was carried right to his death in 1974--and remains alive and well to this very day. His famous words, Murder the Jews, Murder them all are still in use!

Now--Some facts about the Neighborhood of Shimon HaTzadik:

Inscription: ben Hakohen Hagadol

Shimon HaTzadik (Simon the Pious) lived during the beginning of the Second Temple period. Shimon HaTzadik served as the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) for a period of forty years. He was said to be an incredibly righteous man --a Tzadik, and during his lifetime  is said to have accomplished extraordinary things.

Inside Shimon HaTzadik's Tomb

Tradition holds, that when Alexander of Macedon (332 BCE), stood at the Gates of Jerusalem, Shimon HaTzadik donned the Bigdei Lavan (White Garments) that he wore on Yom Kippur when he entered the Holy of Holies, and went out to meet Alexander. When the  Emperor saw Shimon HaTzaddik, he dismounted and prostrated himself on the ground before Shimon. His generals were very puzzled and asked him why he was bowing to the Jew, he replied that every night before a victory, he would see in a dream a figure that looked exactly like the Jewish High Priest, who would advise him on tactics to use the following day. And that advice had never failed him.

Shimon HaTzaddik took Alexander the Great on a tour of the Temple and Alexander requested that a marble image of himself be placed in the Temple. Shimon demurred, saying that it was forbidden for the Jews to have images, and certainly not in the Temple. He suggested that to memorialize the occasion of the Emperor's visit to the Holy City of the Jews that all male babies born that year would receive the name "Alexander". The Emperor liked the idea, and that is how the name Alexander became part of names given to Jewish male babies.

Shimon HaTzadik's Tomb 1900

Shimon’s Tomb is traditionally located in a cave just meters from the cave tomb complexes that are unquestionably of Second Temple times. This location as Shimon’s tomb was attested in 1235. It is depicted on illustrated charts of Jewish holy sites published by the Israel Museum.

After the UN General Assembly recommended partition, the area of Shimon HaTzadik witnessed the beginning of violence as well as the first flight of refugees who could not return after the War of Independence. What is not popularly know is that those first refugees were Jews--yet this is well documented.

Shimon HaTzadik's Tomb Today

So, the pictures of Arabs in tears over the "destruction" of their neighborhood is at best a good photo-op for the anti-Israel media. It is not ethnic cleansing for Jews to legally purchase land to build homes. It is ethnic cleansing for the Arab world to demand a Judenrein state for the "Palestinians". If the PA wanted peace they would have had it in 1948--the fact is they do not want peace, they want the Jews gone--nothing has changed.

Danile Lurie, Executive Director of Ateret Cohanim Association:  

"It is very symbolic, that the home of this former Nazi sympathizer is being razed--even so many years later--to make way for Jews to return to Jerusalem. This building is a symbol of genocide...

The Jews are now returning to our natural home; no one can claim that Jerusalem is not Jewish, and this particular spot is in the heart of Jerusalem. Some Arabs live here, but it is a Jewish area. Shimon HaTzadik  is buried here, Jews live right below, the Police Headquarters are located nearby. The natural process of the Jews returning home is continuing, and with G-d's help it will pick up even more steam."

Quoted from PM Netanyahu: 
“…united Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel.  Our sovereignty over it cannot be challenged; this means that residents of Jerusalem may purchase apartments in all parts of the city…hundreds of apartments in Jewish neighborhoods and in the western part of the city have been purchased by--or rented to--Arab residents, and we did not interfere.  This says that there is no ban on Arabs buying apartments in the western part of the city and there is no ban on Jews buying or building apartments in the eastern part of the city.”

Quoted from FM Lieberman: 
“Thousands of Arab families buy homes in Jerusalem in the Neve Yaakov and French Hill neighborhoods…It would be very strange--and I am trying to be subtle--if the State of Israel decides to discriminate against Jews, especially in Jerusalem, and does not allow them to buy and to build throughout Jerusalem.”