That "Zionist Flag" Unfurled Over the Dome of the Rock

 A staple of Arab propaganda has been the intent of Zionists to take over the Temple Mount.

An example from a Mandate-era pamphlet:

The "Zionist Flag":

Now, let's provide context.

Haj Tewfik Hammad was a witness at the Shaw Commission Inquiry investogating the 1929 Riots.

He was a leading inciter, Vice-President of the first Palestine Arab Congress and formerly representative of Palestine for many years in the Turkish Parliament and an early trouble-maker in 1923, for example. He was Mayor of Nablus/Shchem and a Vice-President of the various Arab Congresses that were convened in the 1920s.

He was asked about the flag:

That "flag" and all the others submitted as 'proof' were nothing more than Simchat Torah pennants waved by the children when celebrating in the dance circles with the scrolls of the Torah during the holiday or an innocent montage.

From the JTA report:

The witness said that “the country was anxious over its destiny and was becoming alarmed owing to “the well-known Jewish ambitions to rebuild Solomon’s Temple on the site of the Mosque of Aksa.” Aouni Bey Abbi Sadi, in examining the witness, asked whether the Zionists have designs on the Moslem Holy Places, to which Hammad replied “yes.” To the question “what makes you think so?” Hammad replied “many pictures with the Zionist flag over the dome rock.”

To Aouni’s question, “What do you understand by the Zionist flag?” Hammad said that “when the emblem is hoisted over a particular place it announces the possession of that place.” Here Aouni reintroduced the famous household pictures and cartoons from “Dos Yiddische Folk” of New York April 30, 1920, soon after the Sat Remo decision. The cartoon was end titled “A Dream Realized,” and accompanied by a poem written by Philip M. Raskin. “It Has Happened.”

And from a second JTA report:

The assertion of the Moslem Elder of Nablus that there is not a single person in Palestine who does not share his conviction that it is the ambition of the Jews to gain control of the entire country in order to rebuild the Wailing Wall, was badly shaken under cross-examination by Sir Boyd Merriman.

Displaying a keen interest in the political and religious acquaintances of Hammad, Merriman asked him: “Have you discussed your anxieties with the Moslem Supreme Council?” “Yes,” answered the witness. “Have you discussed your anxieties with the Grand Mufti?” Merriman continued. Again the answer was in the affirmative. “We are united in our belief on the question,” he asserted.

“Did you tell the people of Nablis what you thought the Jews intended to do?” Merriman queried. “No,” answered Hammad.

“Have you discussed the Jewish designs on the Mosque with your fellow notables of Nablus?” asked Merriman. “Yes, on many occasions,” was the Arab’s reply.

“Have you told them what you believe?” Merriman persisted.

“Sometimes I told them. Sometimes they told me ‘we have the same information’,” Hammad stated.

“When did you begin to think the Jews had designs on encroaching on the Wailing Wall?” Merriman wanted to known.

“I had the same feeling before the war, but it increased with the issuance of the Balfour Declaration,” asserted Hammad.

Is this matter still a problem?

For sure.

An Israeli policeman, with an ensignia patch on his uniform caused problems in 2017 as it was perceived as:

raising the Israeli flag on the shoulder of one of its officers inside the Al-Aqsa mosque

Then MK and Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, standing in the Jewish Quarter overlooking the Temple Mount in 2015 also caused controversy:

Even fellow Moslems who have made peace with Israel are 'flying a red flag' and are seen as Zionist agents. Poor Emiratis.

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UPDATE:

From today ---

PA: Jews are “defiling Jerusalem,” “invading the Al-Aqsa Mosque” when they visit the Temple Mount

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