Skip to main content

More than 900 Jewish settlers storm Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque


Palestinian Muslim worshippers attend the second Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on June 9, 2017. (AFP Photo)

Hundreds of Jewish settlers forced their way into Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex on Thursday, according to a Palestinian agency.

"Around 920 Jewish settlers have entered the compound, accompanied by Israeli police,” the Religious Endowments Authority, a Jordan-run agency responsible for overseeing the city's Muslim and Christian holy sites, said in a statement.

It said the settlers entered through the compound’s al-Mugharbah Gate, where they tried to perform Talmudic rituals.

Al-Aqsa represents the world's third-holiest site for Muslims, while Jews refer to the area as the "Temple Mount,” claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Six-Day War.

There has been a significant increase in the number of extremist Jews raiding the mosque lately. Last week, scores of extremist Jews safeguarded by the Israeli police raided Al-Aqsa Mosque. About 228 extremists entered the mosque.

According to a 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, all waqfs in Jerusalem are under the protection of the administration of Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, which functions under Jordan’s Ministry of Awqaf, Islamic Affairs and Holy Places. A waqf is an Islamic endowment of property held in trust and used for a charitable or religious purpose.

Jews, who used to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque with permission from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf before, regularly enter the Muslim shrine in line with Israel’s unilateral decision, which violates the waqf’s sovereignty.

The waqf, which does not recognize Israel’s unilateral decision, describes such entries by Jews as raids.

The area where the mosque is built is referred to as the Temple Mount by the Jews. It is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a flashpoint issue, with Palestinians fearing Israel may one day seek to assert further control over the site. It is located in east Jerusalem, which was annexed in 1980 by Israeli forces under the claim that the city serves as the capital of the Jewish state, a move never recognized by the international community. It ranks only after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia as far as the holiest sites in Islam and is the most sacred site in Judaism.

Jews are allowed on the premises to visit but not to pray, to avoid provoking tensions.

Muslims believe that the first qiblah, the direction where Muslims turn during prayers, was at Al-Aqsa Mosque until it was designated as Mecca. Moreover, the existence of the Qubbat-us Sahra within the compound makes it more special as it is believed that the Prophet Muhammad started his spiritual journey to heaven (miraj) from there.

Since Israel occupied Jerusalem in 1967, the conflict has continued between Palestinians and Israelis, as the latter believe that the holy temple of Solomon is beneath the mosque. There are several rumors claiming that some Israelis were digging tunnels to reach the temple's ruins.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cryptic-polific investment have been an investment platform where you make money online

I will teach how to earn money from your comfort zone. With a trusted PHP mining company. You can start with a minimum of 20$and earn a huge amount after 12h ours of your mining duration period of time. Join now and earn massively: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:crypto-polific.com

The untold truth of Jet Li

Whenever kung fu comes up in conversation, the movies of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are inevitably discussed, but in his native China, Jet Li is held in equally high regard.

what is the most frightening thing that you have ever seen happen in life

It’s a man looking over his family during the British Raj in India. There were many cases of cannibalism and he feared someone would try to kill and eat his children or wife. I acknowledge this is a difficult picture to look at— but I included it for a reason. Many people in the US/West aren’t even aware of the terrible famines that swept through India and which are comparable to the holocaust in deaths (an estimated ~30 million people have died in famines in India). This was taken from the Great Famine of 1876–1878, which was far worse than the infamous Bengal Famine. It was caused by a crop failure/drought and was exacerbated by the crown’s export of wheat abroad. In total, 5.6 - 9 million people died (it’s hard to get exact figures). And within huge statistics like these, are forgotten stories. These are individuals and families, who slowly faced the despair of knowing they had no food and would have no food in the near future. They faced the horror of knowing there was ...