CAIRO, April 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Egyptian Copts refused on Tuesday, April 5, to take part in any conference on proclaimed Jewish rights in the holy city of Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem).

“Jews can’t turn black into white and claim sacred rights in Al-Quds,” Bishop Salib Matta, member of the Orthodox Copts Council, told IslamOnline.net.

“True that Jews used to live in Al-Quds for a while, but they lived like any minority before the birth of Jesus Christ and then they were scattered across the globe and returned as occupiers to establish their state on the rubble of Palestine.”

Media reports said last month preparations were underway to organize a conference in a European capital grouping Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders on the religious rights of each faith in Al-Quds.

Matta said the Israeli claims of having rights in Al-Quds are part of stereotypes circulated by Jews.

“They, to mention but a few examples, claim that they are the ‘chosen people of God,’ forgetting the fact that they were regarded as such only before the advent of Christianity and Islam.”

Bishop Rafiq Girgis, director of the Catholic Church press office in Cairo, said there is no evidence that Jews had sacred rights in Al-Quds.

“But we can’t deny them the right to enter the holy city to enjoy its spiritual aura,” he said.

Al-Azhar said on March 27, that Jews have no religious rights whatsoever in the holy city.

“Al-Quds is a Palestinian right that should be given back to the Palestinians,” said Fawzi El-Zefzaf, chairman of Al-Azhar's Interfaith Dialogue Committee.

Raouf Abbas, professor of history in Ein Shams University, said since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Israeli archeologists and historians tried in vain to find any Jewish monument to get a foothold in the city.

“They might now resort to such talked-about conferences to get what they failed to have through excavations,” he said.

Mohammad Abu Ghadir, professor of Hebrew in Al-Azhar University, added that Israeli archeologists had failed to prove that the so called “wailing wall” was part of alleged “temple of Solomon.”

Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which includes Al-Aqsa Mosque, represents the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict because of its religious significance for Muslims.

Jews claim that their alleged Haykal (Temple of Solomon) exists underneath Al Haram Al Sharif.

Al-Haram Al-Sharif was the first Qibla (direction Muslims take during prayers) and is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka'ba in Makkah and Prophet Mhuhammad's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia.

Palestinian archeologists have warned that ongoing Israeli excavations weakened the foundations of Al-Aqsa mosque, cautioning it would not stand a powerful earthquake.

Matta said Egyptian Copts are only for conferences on interfaith dialogue, which call for tolerance and peace.

“But we reject any religious conferences with political and hidden agendas,” he told IOL.

Girgis saw eye to eye with Matta on the conference’s purpose.

“We reject to participate in conferences that take religion as a façade to pass their political agenda,” he told IOL.

Matta added that Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria has set a good example by calling for Arabizing Al-Quds and banning any Copt to visit the holy lands as long as they are still occupied by Israel.

Up to 400 Palestinian Christians demonstrated in Al-Quds last month to protest reported land sale by the Greek Orthodox Church to Jewish investors.