PALESTINIAN FM CALLS FOR EMERGENCY ISLAMIC SUMMIT TO DISCUSS AL-AQSA

Ramallah, 18 Dzulqa’dah 1436/2 September 2015 (MINA) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Monday said it has called for an emergency Islamic summit in light of the latest Israeli escalations at al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.

The ministry said it has sent out letters to Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Iyad Madani, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Nabil Elaraby, the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, and Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, and called for an emergency Islamic summit to examine the latest Israeli escalations at the Mosque.

The Israeli side has been enforcing a unilateral temporal division on the Mosque, restricting Palestinians entry, WAFA Palestinian News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

it has been banning Palestinian worshippers from entering the Mosque from 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM, to make way for settlers’ provocative tours inside the Mosque’s compound.

The Headmistress of Al-Aqsa’s religious school Ihad Sabri said that “Israeli Occupation Forces temperamentally decided when and how to allow schoolgirls and teachers enter their school inside Al-Aqsa Mosque”.

Also, worshipers in Al-Aqsa said that the Israeli Occupation Forces inspected all Palestinian men entering the mosque and denied entry to a number of men below the age of 40.

Israeli police present at the compound have also been setting up checkpoints at the Mosque’s gates and retaining Palestinians’ identity cards prior to their entry, a step which the ministry described as an attempt “to impose a fate accompli”, stating that Israel believes Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and UN organizations would get accustomed to such serious escalations.

The ministry, in a press statement, held the Israeli government fully responsible for the consequences of these serious escalations, calling on all relevant sides to shoulder their responsibilities and put an end to them.

It noted it is exerting all possible efforts to get the world countries, including both Arab and Islamic, to promptly move to stop these Israeli provocative escalations, which threaten to explode the situation.(T/R05/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)