ISRAEL SEEKS AL-AQSA MOSQUE DEMOLITION: PA OFFICIAL

Al-Quds (Jerusalem), 30 Jumadil Awwal 1435/31 March 2014 (MINA) –Palestinian officials say the spread of synagogues in the areas of occupied Jerusalem around Al Aqsa Holy Compound is catastrophic to the holy city. It is alleged that the Israeli occupation has surrounded the Al Aqsa Holy Compound in occupied East Jerusalem with 100 Jewish synagogues and ultraorthodox schools.

Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud al-Habbash says Israel plans to demolish the al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds (Jerusalem).

“Israel is following a systematic, gradual plan supported by the Israeli government and protected by the Israeli army and its aim- I’m telling you is not to divide al-Aqsa – its aim is to remove the al-Aqsa Mosque,” al-Habbash said in an interview.

In recent months, Israeli forces and extremist settlers have stepped up their attacks on Palestinians visiting the mosque. This has led to violent confrontations between the two sides.

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Israel has also imposed severe restrictions to prevent Muslim worshippers from entering the mosque.

On February 25, Knesset (Israeli parliament) discussed a plan to annex the site.

Palestinians have denounced the plan as desecration. They say it is part of the Israeli regime’s ongoing attempts to distort Arab and Islamic history.

Palestinians argue that al-Quds is the capital of a future Palestinian independent state, and that its heritage should remain intact.

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Over the past decades, Israel has tried to change the demographic makeup of al-Quds by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites, and expelling the local Palestinian population.

The al-Aqsa compound, which lies in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds, is a flashpoint. The compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism. It is Islam’s third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

The Al Aqsa Institution for Al Waqf and Heritage said that Israeli occupation and colonists have set up those synagogues in occupied Jerusalem as a part of a carefully designed plan to Judaise the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem, occupied in 1967.

“In the past couple of years, the Israeli occupation has set up two major synagogues that are only tens of metres away from Al Aqsa Mosque with a third in the process of being set up,” said Mahmoud Abu Al Attah, the media coordinator of the institute in an interview with Gulf News.

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“The Jewel of Israel synagogue will yet be a new centre for the Jewish colonists around Al Aqsa Mosque in [occupied] east Jerusalem,” he said.

He said that those synagogues accommodate far right colonists and rabbis and graduate ultraorthodox students. They are proponents of the demolition of Al Aqsa Mosque and the deportation of all Palestinian residents from occupied Jerusalem.

New realities

“The Jewel of Israel Synagogue is major catastrophe that will catastrophically affect the future of [the] Muslims’ third holiest Mosque,” said Ahmad Qurei, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and Head of the PLO Department for Jerusalem Affairs, in a statement.

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Qurei warned the Israeli Regional Building and Construction Committee against going through with the final discussion and approval of setting up the synagogue. “If approved by the committee, work on setting up the synagogue will be commenced immediately,” he said.

“Surrounding Al Aqsa Mosque with Jewish synagogues has been an old Israeli policy to impose new realities on the ground and to create a new scene where the Jewish colonists will have the necessary chance to divide the holy shrine in terms of worship times and place,” he said.

Qurei said that the occupation Municipality in occupied Jerusalem has already allocated the necessary budget of 50 million Shekels (Dh52.5 million) to set up the Jewel of Israel Synagogue which is one of the Jewish projects that seems to be irreversible.

Nonetheless, he warned it will spread a wave of rejection among Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.(T/P02/P04)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)

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