Late last month, when two Israeli militants were arrested for allegedly plotting to throw a pig's head onto the Temple Mount - an act of provocation intended to coincide with Ramadan prayers at the al-Aksa and Omar mosques there - Mr Yasser Arafat noted that, "many times, we have warned of the attempts of Israeli extremists to defile al-Aksa and destroy it", David Horovitz reports.
And, indeed, over the years, several Jewish radicals have been jailed for planning to blow up the mosques, as a prelude to the rebuilding of a Jewish Temple on the site.
Now evidence has emerged of a more mainstream call for their destruction - a call issued by the chief rabbi of the Israeli army, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, just hours after Israel captured the Old City during the Six-Day War of 1967.
According to information that has come to light this week, Rabbi Goren, who died in 1994, urged Uzi Narkiss, the commander of the Israeli troops in the Old City, to "put 100 kilograms of explosives into the Mosque of Omar, so that we may rid ourselves of it once and for all".
Maj-Gen Narkiss, who died last month, discussed the conversation in an interview conducted a year ago, but insisted it not be published while he was alive. He recalled that he firmly rejected Rabbi Goren's suggestion, but that the rabbi was persistent: "Uzi, you'll go down in history if you do this," Rabbi Goren told him. "You don't realise what tremendous significance this would have."
"Rabbi," Maj-Gen Narkiss responded, "if you don't stop, I'll take you to jail."
Rabbi Goren apparently took the idea to Yitzhak Rabin and Moshe Dayan, the chief-of-staff and defence minister, respectively, who both flatly rejected it.