A top Palestinian cleric insisted in an interview published on Thursday that the Jews never had a temple to their God atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount, and that the site has never been holy to any religion but Islam.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, the former Palestinian Authority-appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, attempted to rewrite history at the holy site he had administered until just a few months ago.

"There was never a Jewish temple on Al-Aksa [the mosque compound] and there is no proof that there was ever a temple," Sabri said, brushing aside decades of archeological finds, as well as numerous extra-biblical historical writings that attest to the ancient Jewish temple.

Putting forward the equally incredible claim that Islam does not overrun and appropriate the holy sites of other religions, Sabir asserted that "because Allah is fair, he would not agree to make Al-Aksa if there were a temple there for others beforehand."

Sabri stated that if the Jews ever want peace with the Muslim world, they will drop what he insists is a false claim to Jerusalem's Temple Mount.