The Palestinian Authority's chief Islamic judge, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, has claimed that there was no evidence that Jews had ever lived in Jerusalem or that the Temple ever existed. According to a report in the ‘Jerusalem Post’ Tamimi said Israeli archeologists had "admitted" that Jerusalem was never inhabited by Jews.
The influential Islamic scholar’s announcement came in response to statements made earlier this week by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had said that Jerusalem "is not a settlement," and that "the Jews built it 3,000 years ago."
"Netanyahu's claims are baseless and untrue," said Tamimi, the highest religious authority in the Palestinian Terroritories. "Jerusalem is an Arab and Islamic city and it always has been so," he claimed, condemning "all Jewish rabbis and extremist organizations" as liars because of their assertion that Jerusalem was a Jewish city.