In an April 23, 2025 speech at the 32nd Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Central Council meeting in Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of attempting to alter the historical and legal status of Christian and Islamic holy sites, warning that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the target of “the most hideous plot by the occupation,” which he claimed seeks to destroy the mosque and build a Jewish temple in its place.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported that Abbas also alleged that “a large part of [Israeli] history is falsified,” and asserted that, according to the Quran, the First and Second Jewish Temples were actually located in Yemen. 

“[Israel] is trying to change the historical and legal status of the Islamic and Christian holy places, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is an inseparable part of our religious faith and national identity, and our presence in our historical homeland of Palestine for thousands of years,” Abbas said. “[The Al-Aqsa Mosque] is the target of the most hideous plot by the occupation. They spread incitement for its destruction, and the building of a Jewish temple in its place. In the Noble Quran – and I believe that also in other divine books – it says that the [First and Second] Temples were in Yemen. People who like reading about religion can check it out.”

While Islam acknowledges that Jesus existed as a Musliom prophet of Allah, in this part of his statement, Abbas seems to be denying the historicity of the Christian New Testament which explicitly describes Jesus as entering the Temple in Jerusalem.

“[The Jews say:] ‘This is ours and that was ours, and this is where Solomon’s Temple was…’ I am telling you, a large part of history is falsified. People who read the Quran know this.”

This assertion by Abbas is not his most shocking. Abbas entered graduate studies at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, earning a Candidate of Sciences degree (the Soviet equivalent of a PhD). His 1982 doctoral dissertation was The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism. In his thesis, he argues that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis to spur more Jewish immigration to Palestine.  He also claims that the figure of six million dead has been exaggerated for political gain, and suggests one million as a more reasonable estimate. 

While most people would consider it absurd to deny that Solomon’s Temple stood in Jerusalem, Abbas is doing precisely this by following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Former US president Bill Clinton related his experience mediating a peace agreement between Palestinian Authority leader Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the Camp David Summit in 2000. Shockingly, Barak agreed to hand the Palestinians control of the Temple Mount on the condition that the area around the Western Wall remain under Israel’s control. Arafat rejected the offer, claiming that no Jewish temple ever stood on the Temple Mount but had, perhaps, stood in Shechem (Nablus). 

In his memoir, My Life, Clinton laid the blame for the failure of the talks squarely on Arafat, recounting that the Palestinian leader once complimented him by saying, “You are a great man.” Clinton responded, “I am not a great man. I am a failure, and you made me one.”