Recent comments by Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, a judge serving the Palestinian Authority, have caused a seemingly deserved outcry. He has denied the existence of the Temple, and questioned the Jewish history in Jerusalem.

How is it that a man in his position can deny the Jewish history in Jerusalem despite archaeological evidence? Of course, the underlying question for many is: How can the PA propagate such baseless ideologies?

Simple. It is an act of self-defense.

Travel down any street in Jerusalem, and a far more frightening site emerges. Street signs displaying names in Hebrew, Arabic, and English; but the Arabic is blotted out. The perpetrators, usually Jewish youth, use paint, or stickers with religious and nationalistic slogans that obscure the Arabic names. While both Arabic and Hebrew are official languages, and English holds a "semi-official" status, English is exempt from the attacks. Only Arabic is being erased.

Simply obscuring the names is not enough. A recent effort to Hebraize the names of many cities has gone largely unnoticed outside of Israel.

In English, it is Jerusalem. Hebrew, Yerushalem. The Arabic name, Al-Quds, has been used by both Christians and Muslims for millennia, but is now given second-class status. Road signs leading to Jerusalem now have an Arabic transliteration of the Hebrew Yerushalem. Yaffa, the booming Arab port city prior to 1948, is Hebraized into Yafo. Even Al-Nasra, the name Arab Christians have used to describe Jesus' hometown of Nazareth, is under threat. Efforts are underway to change both the Arabic and English into the Hebrew transliteration Natsrat.

It may seem trivial, but this would be the equivalent of changing the names of Amarillo and Sante Fe, to Yellow and Holy Faith to hide the Mexican history of southwest United States.

Though many Israeli officials claim it is merely an attempt at unification to decrease confusion, Palestinians disagree. A Palestinian in Ramallah who wanted to be identified only as Ahmed stated, "They [Israeli Government] won't even let us use the Arabic names anymore. We have lived in these cities for a thousand years, but they rename everything in Hebrew."

Road signs are not the only issue to cause concern.

For years, mainstream Israeli and American media have shown increasing concern over the "racist indoctrination" of Palestinian school children. The obvious questions that keep arising: How is it that Palestinian schoolbooks omit mentioning the Holocaust? Why is Israel not shown on any maps? "These are the tools used to create radical suicide bombers" is the given answer.

Seldom is the other side mentioned.

Israeli textbooks fare no better than their Palestinian counterparts. Israeli maps and geography textbooks often omit The Green Line separating the West Bank and Gaza from Israel, creating a "de facto annexation." Even the map used by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism contains glaring omissions. There is no Green Line, no West Bank, no separation wall; only Judea and Samaria.

Rather than deny history like the PA, many Israelis, from ordinary citizens to chief politicians, are eradicating history. Tamimi's comments are hardly a threat to peace, or the existence of Israel, but a small effort to retaliate against a seemingly endless attack on Palestinians.