In an address to the Cairo conference on Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Arab Muslims and Christians to end their boycott of going to occupied Jerusalem, arguing that such visits will help preserve the city’s identity and support its inhabitants. The plea should resonate with every Arab, regardless of their faith, to come to the rescue of city, which is an integral part of both the Muslim and Christian faith.
For Muslims, it is believed that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) ascended to heaven on the famous rock, which is now housed by the Dome of the Rock, the aesthetic jewel crown to Occupied Jerusalem’s skyline. In the same area, known to Muslims as Al Haram Al Sharif, the third holiest mosque in Islam, stands Al Aqsa Mosque, commissioned by the Second Caliph Omar in the seventh century. For Christians, it houses the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where they believe Jesus was crucified and buried. However, all of this critical history has been ignored by Israel as it pushes forward with sinister plans to Judaise the holy city since it captured and occupied in the 1967 war.
Despite the fact that the move was never recognised by the international community, Israel has executed systematic plans to erase the Arab character and identity of the city. Arabic street signs have been replaced with Hebrew ones while Jews habitually raid Al Haram Al Sharif to perform Jewish rituals there.
Al Haram Al Sharif was built on top of the ancient remnants of the Temple Mount, a site sacred in Judaism that was destroyed in the fourth century by the Romans, during their rule. Palestinians have long suspected that Israel plans to destroy the Muslim site in order to rebuild the temple in its place.
Already a metro line is being planned by Israel to connect the city’s western sector directly to Al Haram Al Sharif, where Jews have hijacked the outer wall of Al Haram Al Sharif, known to Muslims as Al Buraq Wall, and to Jews as the “western” or the “wailing wall”. Palestinians who have, in the past, defended the holy mosque from Jewish raids, by disturbing Jewish worshippers trespassing there, have been barred from the premises by the Israeli regime.
As it stands now, there is no deterrent left to stand in Israel’s way of completely taking over the area.
This is why it is incumbent upon Arabs and Muslims to visit Occupied Jerusalem and Al Haram Al Sharif to deliver an important message to Israel that occupied Jerusalem will not be stolen from under them.
