Today marks 50th anniversary of Al Aqsa arson attack

AMMAN — Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the first attempt to burn Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Attacks on the Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli occupation between 2014 and 2018 totalled 1,225, and they amounted to 223 attacks in the first seven months of 2019, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Tuesday.

Michael Dennis Rohan, a tourist from Australia and a member of the “Church of God”, set fire to the mosque on August 21, 1969 in an attempt to hasten the coming of the Messiah.

Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs Secretary General Abdullah Kanaan told Petra that the arson was neither the first nor the last attack on Islamic and Christian sanctuaries in Jerusalem, noting that Aqsa break-ins are carried out on a daily basis with the protection of occupation forces.