Jerusalem.- More than 3,200 Israeli settlers, escorted by police, visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem from the early hours of this Thursday to mark the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av, according to data from the Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian charitable foundation that manages the religious site.
The entry of Jewish worshippers, against the ‘status quo’, is due to the fact that it is in this enclave -which symbolizes the third holiest site for Muslims and is adjacent to the Western Wall- where it is believed that the First and Second Jewish Temples were located, the latter destroyed in 70 A.D. and never rebuilt.
A space reserved for Muslims
According to that ‘status quo’ in force since 1967 -when Israel occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem, where the Esplanade is located-, the site is reserved exclusively for Muslim worship, while Jews can only enter as visitors, since Jewish laws forbid their faithful from praying at the holiest place for them, something only permitted to some rabbis.
However, this instruction is repeatedly violated by Israeli settlers who break into the complex to perform Talmudic prayers and chants, often under the supervision of the Jerusalem Police.
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During the observance of Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple, the number of intruders skyrockets, with the connivance of the intense Israeli security deployment in the Old City.
Ultra minister celebrates that Jews are “taking over” Al Aqsa
The Israeli Minister of National Security himself, the settler and far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, was one of those who violated the ‘status quo’ today by accessing the complex, where he celebrated that Jews feel like “owners of the place”.
“On Tisha B’Av we commemorate the destruction. But we are also seeing tremendous progress on the Temple Mount,” said Ben Gvir in a video recorded in front of Al Aqsa, using the Hebrew term to refer to the Esplanade of the Mosques.
“Look at what is happening here: Jews praying, feeling like they own the place. This had never happened here before,” added the supremacist minister.
The minister participated in the prayer accompanied by Likud deputy (the party led by Benjamin Netanyahu) Amit Halevi. Both performed Talmudic rituals in the courtyards and raised the Israeli flag.
Jordan condemns the “assault”
Jewish prayer is practiced at the Western Wall -located on one of the sides of the Esplanade-, and this is advised by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, although in recent years some rabbis aligned with the religious Zionism movement have changed that recommendation and advocate for prayer where the Second Temple once stood.
For Palestinians and even for Jordan -the country that has guarded the site since 1967-, that change is more political than religious, an attempt at the Judaization and Israelization of all of Jerusalem.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned this Thursday the “assault” by the extremist Israeli National Security Minister along with thousands of Israeli settlers on the Esplanade of the Mosques.
The department described their entry into the place of worship “under the protection of the Israeli occupation police” as an “assault,” and also condemned “the attacks against worshippers, the provocative actions of extremists and the police, the raising of Israeli flags, and the incitement to violence by extremist groups.”
“These actions constitute a flagrant violation of the historical and legal status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a desecration of the mosque’s sanctity, a reprehensible escalation, an act of barbarism, and an unacceptable provocation,” the ministry stressed.
Abbas describes the entry of settlers as a “dangerous escalation”
For his part, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced this Thursday the entry of Israeli settlers into the Esplanade of the Mosques as a “dangerous escalation.”
“What is happening at the Al-Aqsa Mosque represents a dangerous escalation that is part of a systematic policy aimed at imposing new realities in the area and attempting to divide it temporally and spatially,” said Abbas, according to a statement shared by the official Palestinian agency Wafa.
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In addition, the Palestinian Presidency called on the international community to take a firm stance to force Israel to “cease all its violations and unilateral actions” both in Jerusalem and in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.
