JEWISH SETTLERS STORMED THE AL-AQSA COMPLEX DURING RAMADAN
Jerusalem, 7 Ramadan 1434/15 July 2013 (MINA) – Sheikh Najeh Bkeirat, the Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex manager said that a group of Jewish settlers on Sunday stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex in occupied Jerusalem for prayers.
Bkeirat said that 180 settlers, including 18 rabbis, entered the compound through the Al-Magharebah gate, the Saudi Gazette quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Bkeirat added that settlers toured the Al-Aqsa Mosque plaza under the heavy guard of Israeli police and Border Guard officers. The group started provoking the Muslim worshipers.
The official said that the almost daily storming of the Muslim’s third holiest shrine is part of the Israeli measures to Judaize what has been left of Jerusalem “by intensifying the Jewish presence in it.”
He warned that “the visits of Jewish settlers during the blessed month of Ramadan may provoke Muslims.”
The development comes two weeks after Rabbi Yaakov Medan of Har (Mount) Etzion seminary said that the Israeli internal intelligence service Shin Bet supports the visits.
“The Shin Bet Jewish Division Director told me that Jewish presence on the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa Mosque complex) is essential for maintaining our sovereignty. He told me that in order to accommodate this trend he would increase the number of agents and security personnel on the Temple Mount,” Medan told participants in the Begin Center Conference on the complex on Friday.
Several Jewish rabbis say that the Halacha (Jewish religious law) forbids Jews to ascend to the complex, both because of its sanctity and because of the political repercussions their presence may have.
Palestinian Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash urged the Palestinian people to intensify its presence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex during Ramadan despite Israeli restrictions.
Local Muslim worshipers and students protested the visit by shouting ‘Allah Akbar’, or ‘God is Great’, at the group.
Sheikh Najih Ibkeirat denounced the entry of Jewish rightists to the area and urged the Islamic world to prepare “a practical plan to stop the daily raids on Al-Aqsa.”
“Extremists are trying to provoke Muslims and make up trouble in order to provide an excuse for Israeli forces to deny West Bankers entry to the mosque during Ramadan,” Ibkeirat added.
Visits to the Al-Aqsa compound by Jewish extremists are intended to show local Palestinian Muslims that they can enter the area at will, even during the holy month of Ramadan, Ibkeirat said.
Israeli politicians, such as Likud’s Moshe Feiglin, have in the past called for Jewish prayers at the compound, and control and access to the holy site is a particularly sensitive religious and political issue.
The Al-Aqsa compound, containing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the third holiest site in Islam and abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Second Temple stood. (T/P012/P09/E1).
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
