Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz) has always been an outspoken advocate for Israel but he recently went even further when criticizing the recent UN resolutions concerning Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. In his response, Gosar called on the UN to dismantle the Muslim structures in Jerusalem that were built on the ruins of the Jewish Temple.

UN Anti-Israel resolution

At the beginning of the month, during the holiday of Hannukah, The United Nations General Assembly approved the Jerusalem Resolution that referred to Israel as “the occupying power”,  disavowing Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and called it solely by its Muslim-Arabic name of al-Haram al-Sharif.

In his statement, Gosar decried the UN resolution as an attempt to “categorize the holiest Jewish temple in Jerusalem as belonging to Islam and Christianity.”

“The recent vote by the United Nations disavowing Jewish historical ties and exclusivity to the Temple Mount—the holiest and most sacred Temple in Judaism—is an outrageous act of religious persecution,” Rep. Gosar wrote. “This is a transparent effort, supported by 129 nations but opposed by the United States, to rewrite history, cleanse the holy area of its religious ties to the Jewish faith and deny that Israel has roots to the Middle East.”

Gosar emphasized that the UN vote be viewed in the context of the Jewish holiday:

“No one can simply ‘vote’ to erase historical and religious events.  This vote, coming during Hanukkah, is particularly ill-conceived.  At its core, this is religious and ethnic cleansing and its purpose is to give validity to a false claim that the Temple is an Islamic holy site.  It is not and it never should be. 

“The Jewish Temple, located in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City, is holy ground to Jews and it belongs solely to their faith.  I object to any effort to ethnically cleanse the Jewish people from their sole historic claim to this land and temple.  

Gosar went on to call for the dismantling of the Muslim structure, which he described as “an abomination”, built on top of the Jewish Temple.

“It remains an abomination that a mosque was allowed to be built over this temple. The United Nations should be finding ways to dismantle and move that mosque, which is an affront to all religions,” concluded Congressman Gosar.

It is interesting to note that Gosar did not specify which Muslim structure on the Temple Mount he felt should be dismantled. The UN resolution specified al-Haram al-Sharif (the noble sanctuary), a term that refers to the Temple Mount and not to a specific structure. The major structures currently on the site are the grey domed Al Aqsa Mosque (the further mosque) and the gold-domed Qubbat a Sakhra (shrine of the rock) that was built on the site of the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temples. 

Rabbi Weiss: Al Aqsa can stay

Rabbi Hillel Weiss, the spokesman for the Sanhedrin, does not believe that all of the Muslim structures on the Temple Mount needed to be removed.

“As long as the Muslims agree to live peacefully with the other religions in Israel, there is no reason to remove the Aqsa Mosque,” Rabbi Weiss said. “An entrance can be set up and pathways arranged so that they can, like the Jews and everyone else, remain in the permitted areas. In fact, the current entrance to the Aqsa Mosque fits that description. Al Aqsa is not in the part of the Temple Mount that was used in the Temples.”

“But by calling the entire Temple Mount by the name Al Aqsa, they are laying claim to the entire mountain with the intent of preventing the Jews from returning the Temple service. This has no source in Islam or benefit to the Muslims. It is simply a political lie that was created by the Palestinians and perpetuated by those who hate the Jews.”

Rabbi Weiss referred to the mainstream Muslim belief that that the true location of the Al Aqsa Mosque described in Koran is in Al Ju’ranah, near Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

“It is important that the term ‘al-Haram al-Sharif’ is wiped from the narrative, and even more so using the term ‘al Aqsa’ to refer to the Dome of the Rock or the entire compound,” Rabbi Weiss said. “Nothing good, certainly nothing godly, comes from lies.”

Gosar is a Roman Catholic but he has been critical of Pope Francis, who he describes as a “cultural Marxist”, boycotting the Pope’s 2015 address to Congress.

I’m a proud Catholic Christian. I objected to the Pope’s cultural Marxism years ago as inconsistent with Christianity and his obsession with leftist politics. I want bible based theology from the Pope not trendy socialist tripe. I am no longer alone. https://t.co/nVnAxu0EaI

— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) May 1, 2019

Gosar has been the focus of controversy in the past. In November, Gosar was censured by the House of Representatives and stripped of committee assignments for posting an edited clip of Attack on Titan depicting him killing a titan with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s face and attacking a character with President Joe Biden’s face on social media.