Expressing their discontent over recent Palestinian claims to the contrary, more than 1,500 Orthodox rabbis plan to advertise the centrality of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to the Jewish people this week in The New York Times. Representing nine Orthodox groups, the full-page ad was paid for by a private donor, in honor of Jerusalem?s 34th birthday under Israeli sovereignty, according to The Jerusalem Post.

In December, the Maryland-based Jewish Peace Lobby began circulating a statement that says, ?As Jewish religious leaders, we do not want the site of our Holy Temple to be an obstacle to peace between our two peoples. Judaism does not demand exclusive Jewish sovereignty over this site.?

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, officer of the National Council of Young Israel, said, ?We were so shocked that there could be any rabbi that would say that the Temple Mount doesn?t belong to the Jews?..Anybody who can say that Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are not the centrality of the Jewish people, does not believe in Jewish history.?