Unprecedented Israeli aggression on Aqsa

News about Al Aqsa Mosque has been overshadowed by the bombardment of the Islamic State’s command and control centres in Iraq and Syria.

Last week, the Netanyahu-Lieberman government took advantage of the fact that the whole world was following the siege by IS fighters of the last Kurdish stronghold in Syria, and brought thousands of settlers to storm the Aqsa Mosque on Succot Jewish festivities, an act that has had no precedent for the last 14 centuries.

The move is part of a master plan to coerce Palestinians in greater Jerusalem, with a population of nearly 375,000, forming about 40 per cent of the city’s population, through devilish means, to leave their country in order to make room for more Jewish residents since the 300,000 settlers already there are not exerting the pressure required to make Palestinians leave voluntarily.

Jordan officially condemned that aggression by the Israeli police who evacuated Muslim worshippers and beaten others expelling them by tear gas and batons outside the walls.

An official spokesman said: “Israeli police targeted Muslim worshippers in order to allow Jewish groups to proceed. The forces of the occupation prevented religious officials from entering [the compound] and cleared it of all Muslims, while at the same time enabling Jewish extremists to storm it and pray with security forces protection. Dozens of Muslims were injured during the rioting… Israel should stop its devastating campaign against Al Aqsa Mosque, religious officials and worshippers.”

The Palestinian government denounced the attack on the mosque and said Israel was trying to change the political conflict into one between religions, which nobody can later contain or put an end to.

But the religious aspect in the Jerusalem issue impacts 1.57 billion Muslims representing 23 per cent of the world population.

If this generation of believers shows some apathy towards Jerusalem due to the recent recovery from the excruciating experience of European colonialism, the new ones will be on the move to stress their territorial imperative and translate, within the compounds of the Holy City, their concepts of dignity and honour into acts of liberation. 

There is a host of Security Council resolutions that consider the Holy City as part of the occupied territories which should be restored to the Palestinians.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 determined that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith. The Security Council affirms also that those actions constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.