Zionist Extremists Call for Destruction of Al Aqsa's Dome of the Rock
Thousands of extremist Zionist settlers marching through the streets of Al Quds(Jerusalem) yesterday
wore T-shirts that explicitly called for the destruction of Masjid al Aqsa’s Dome of the Rock.
This revelation was made by Abeer Zayyad, a Jerusalem based researcher who works within the Al Aqsa compound. Speaking to Cii Radio’s Sabahul Khair this morning, Zayyad said the highly visible T-shirts contained slogans signalling that the time for destroying the iconic mosque had arrived.
The right-wing Israelis were celebrating “Jerusalem Day,” a controversial national holiday celebrating what Israelis call the “reunification” of the city.
Eyewitnesses told the Ma’an News Agency that rightists, who were allowed into the Al Aqsa compound escorted by Israeli forces, started to perform prayers near the Silsilah Gate opposite the Dome of the Rock. They were subsequently removed.
When young Palestinian men, happy to see the Israelis sent away, started to shout “Allahu Akbar,” Israeli forces approached them and both sides began pushing each other.
At the Council Gate, young Palestinian men struggled to pass through crowd-control barriers, but Israeli officers blocked them and attacked the worshipers with clubs and pepper spray.
Separately, clashes erupted between young Palestinians and Israeli extremists at the al-Qattanin Gate after Zionists chanted “this is the Temple’s Gate.” Israeli police intervened to end the dispute.
Palestinians allege that the police sprayed the Palestinian protesters with pepper spray, and deliberately attacked a number of Palestinian journalists.
Several Palestinians were also attacked trying to reach the Al-Aqsa mosque leading to several injuries. In addition, eyewitnesses said that the police and undercover units of the Israeli army kidnapped 21 Palestinians after violently attacking them.
According to Zayyad, Palestinian youth challenging Israeli police and settlers at Masjid al Aqsa yesterday said they had embarked on the protest action on behalf of all Muslims of the world, but felt betrayed by the inaction of the global Muslim community.
She added that repeated Zionist forays into the area of Masjidul Aqsa close to the Dome of the Rock should be viewed as ominous, as religous Zionists had previously considered this area out of bounds.
“Now they are saying that this place is all for them, and they have the right to be and pray anywhere they want.”
She said it had also been suggested by Zionists that the Dome of the Rock was just architecture, and hence could easily be moved to another location.
Zayyad noted that the greatest fear of Palestinians were laws being promulgated that would legalise Jewish prayer within Masjid al Aqsa.
“This would be the forerunner to the division of Masjid al Aqsa along the same lines of what happened with the Ibrahimi Masjid in al Khalil,” she warned.
In a related development, Najeh Bakirat, director of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, said
the Israeli government had officially adopted the project to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque, and started discussing legislations to increase number of Jews who visit Al-Aqsa Mosque.
According to the Palestine Information Center, Hebrew radio revealed that the Knesset began on Wednesday discussing the adoption of a law that allows increasing the number of Jewish settlers who visit Al-Aqsa Mosque.
In remarks to Quds Press agency, Bakirat pointed to the seriousness of this development.
“The Arab and Islamic silence, at both the official and public level, regarding the events taking place in the Holy City represents a serious waiver,” he added.
Bakirat pointed out that the Israeli attacks did not affect Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem only, but also included arrests of religious icons, referring to the recent arrest of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein.\
For his part; the Jerusalemite MP Mohammed Abu Teir said that the occupation does not need legal justifications to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque and control it, because it always does whatever it wants to impose a fait accompli.
The MP, who was deported to Ramallah, told Quds Press on Wednesday that “the repeated visits to Al-Aqsa indicate that the occupation seeks to impose a fait accompli on the ground, so that it will be able to impose its full control over Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
He called on the Jerusalemites and the Palestinians in the 1948-occupied territories to confront the occupation plans, through intensifying their presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards in order to thwart any attempt to control it.
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