I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2566
To prohibit assistance from being provided to the Palestinian Authority or
its instrumentalities unless the President certifies that no excavation
of the Temple Mount in Israel is being conducted.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 19, 2001
Mr. CANTOR (for himself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr.
PITTS, Mr. KIRK, Mr. BACHUS, Mr. RYUN of Kansas, Mr. PENCE, Mr.
SOUDER, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky, Mr. WEINER, Mr.
SCHROCK, Mr. GRUCCI, Mr. SCHAFFER, Mr. ISRAEL, and Mr. TIBERI)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
International Relations
A BILL
To prohibit assistance from being provided to the Palestinian
Authority or its instrumentalities unless the President
certifies that no excavation of the Temple Mount in
Israel is being conducted.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Temple Mount Preser-
vation Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The Temple Mount, located in the heart of
Jerusalem, Israel, has great religious significance to
the world’s three major monotheistic religions, and
increasing violence, religious intolerance, and archeo-
logical neglect threaten to destroy this sacred site.
(2) According to the Jewish faith, the Temple
Mount (Har ha-Bayit in Hebrew) is the location
where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son,
Isaac, in the ultimate test of his commitment to
God. The Temple Mount was also the site of the
first and second Holy Temples, and it is a basic
tenet of Judaism that it will be the site of the third
Holy Temple.
(3) According to Christianity, Jesus was dedi-
cated on the Temple Mount in the Second Temple
in accordance with the Law of Moses. He referred
to the Biblical Temple as his Father’s House, and
was tempted by the Devil at the pinnacle of the
Temple Mount.
(4) According to Islam, the Prophet Moham-
mad ascended into Heaven riding al-Burak from the
edge of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Shaif in Ara-
bic). Al-Aqsa Mosque is located on the site of the
Prophet’s ascent and is the third holiest site in
Islam. The Dome of the Rock was built over the
Holiest Rock, considered in Muslim traditions as the
Center or Core of the Universe.
(5) In June 1967, Jerusalem once again be-
came a united city under Israel’s sovereignty. Since
that time, Israel has been legally responsible for the
Temple Mount and has been respectful of the reli-
gious practices of Jews, Christians, and Muslims
with regard to this site.
(6) The Israeli Government elected to delegate
the daily oversight of the Temple Mount to the Tem-
ple Mount Waqf (Religious Council), in tacit co-
operation with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,
because of the King’s capacity as the Custodian of
Haram al-Sharif. In 1994, Jordan’s role as custo-
dian of Muslim religious interests was codified in the
Israeli-Jordanian Peace Treaty.
(7) In the aftermath of the 1993 Oslo Accords,
Yassir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority asserted pre-
eminence on the Temple Mount through the subver-
sion of the Waqf and by coercing the Jordan-affili-
ated officials and clergymen off the Temple Mount.
Arafat personally nominated the virulently anti-Se-
mitic and anti-American Mufti Ikrima Sabri as the
Imam of al-Aqsa Mosque. In May 1998, Sabri de-
clared that the Jews have no right to the Temple
Mount.
(8) In 1996, the Israeli Islamic Movement
sponsored the expansion of the underground al-
Marawani Mosque on the Temple Mount. The exca-
vation conducted for this expansion extended beyond
the original compound, and an ancient underground
structure dating from the period of the Second Tem-
ple (circa 515 B.C. (B.C.E.) to 70 A.D. (C.E.)),
known as the Western Hulda Gate passageway, was
converted into a mosque.
(9) In early 1998, the Waqf, controlled by the
Palestinian Authority, began further excavation. A
major underground mosque hall was inaugurated in
August 1999 and an emergency exit was opened to
a mosque located on the Temple Mount. The exit is
18,000 square feet in size and up to 36 feet deep,
and thousands of tons of ancient fills from the site
were dumped into the Kidron Valley. Archeologists
have subsequently determined that artifacts dumped
into the Kidron Valley from the Temple Mount
dated from the period of the First Temple (circa
1006 B.C. (B.C.E.) to 586 B.C. (B.C.E.)).
(10) In mid 2000, Arafat deployed onto the
Temple Mount armed and unarmed security per-
sonnel of Jibril Rajoub’s Preventive Security Forces
in violation of numerous past agreements with
Israel. Rajoub’s forces evicted the Waqf’s personnel
and consolidated Arafat’s control and ability to wage
the Intifadah (‘‘uprising’’) against Israel.
(11) In February and March of 2001, an an-
cient arched structure built against the Eastern
Wall of the Temple Mount enclosure was razed by
bulldozers in order to further enlarge the emergency
gate of the new mosque at the Stables of Solomon.
(12) In early May, Arafat ordered that the un-
derground halls under the Temple Mount be unified
into a single fortified space that would be both the
largest mosque ever built on Haram al-Sharif and a
springboard for the forthcoming Palestinian struggle
for control of the Temple Mount. Given the haste
and unsupervised nature of the ongoing excavation
and construction work, there is great fear that the
foundations of the two Holy Mosques will be severely
damaged to the point of collapse.
(13) The actions of Yassir Arafat and the Pal-
estinian Authority threaten to eliminate all historical
evidence of Jewish activity on the Temple Mount
and serve to discredit Israeli claims of sovereignty
over the Temple Mount.
(14) The massive excavation and unsupervised
destruction of artifacts discovered within the Temple
Mount are undeniable affronts to the concepts of re-
ligious freedom and tolerance that must be respected
in order to achieve and maintain peace in the Middle
East. The destruction of the Temple Mount, which
threatens to incite more violence, is destroying sa-
cred artifacts and jeopardizing the ability of Ameri-
cans to understand and promote their Judeo-Chris-
tian heritage.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FUNDS FOR PALESTINIAN AU-
THORITY AND ITS INSTRUMENTALITIES.
(a) PROHIBITION.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, no funds appropriated or otherwise made
available in any Act of Congress may be used for any form
of assistance to the Palestinian Authority or any instru-
mentality of the Palestinian Authority, either directly or
through any nongovernmental organization or other enti-
ty, unless the President has certified to the Congress that
no excavation of the Temple Mount in Israel is being con-
ducted, other than that authorized by the Israeli Antiq-
uities Authority.
(b) ANNUAL
RECERTIFICATION
REQUIRED.—Any
certification by the President under subsection (a) shall
expire on the last day of the fiscal year in which it is made.
(c) NATIONAL SECURITY WAIVER.—The President
may waive the prohibition contained in subsection (a) for
a fiscal year if the President certifies in writing to the
Congress that such waiver is in the national security inter-
ests of the United States.
Æ