Ramallah: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has barred all regime cabinet ministers and lawmakers from visiting occupied Jerusalem’s Al Haram Al Sharif, fearing any high-profile spectacle could further inflame tensions that have gripped the city for weeks, an Israeli official he said Thursday.
Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset have vowed to ignore the ban and to even increase their visits to Al Haram Al Sharif.
“We challenge this ban order. Let them try us. We will regularly and increasingly visit Al Haram Al Sharif to protect it,” said MK Hanin Al Zoabi from the Joint Arab List. “We do not receive orders from Netanyahu and Israel.” She said Palestinian lawmakers will be in Al Haram Al Sharif on Friday, and almost on a daily basis.
“Our relationship with occupied East Jerusalem and Al Haram Al Sharif does not pass through Israel and Netanyahu does not have anything to do with it.”
His ban order, Al Zoabi explained, was ‘a mere hysteric reaction’ which shows that he is losing control of this situation.
Al Zoabi was speaking to Gulf News from the Nazareth Central Court attending a hearing of dozens of 1948 area-Palestinians who were arrested by Israeli police to prevent them from joining a planned protest against Israeli restrictions on Al Haram Al Sharif.
The ban comes amid extreme tension in the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem after unprecedented restrictions were imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities on Palestinians seeking access to their own holy site at Al Haram Al Sharif.
Palestinians say that the restrictions are part of a plan to ‘change the facts on the ground by completely erasing Palestinian and Muslim identity from the holy city in an attempt to Judaise occupied East Jerusalem’.
Jewish colonist groups have insisted on accessing the Muslim holy site to perform Jewish rituals and prayers, which goes against the status quo of allowing Jews to visit the site but not perform prayers. Israeli occupation forces have escorted the colonists giving them protection, which has angered Palestinians. Calls to defend the Muslim site increased after Israel banned Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem under the age of 50 from accessing the site. Palestinians from 1948 areas answered the call and rushed to the site to try to prevent the colonist invaders from praying there. Clashes have erupted inside Al Haram Al Sharif as Israeli occupation forces fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas to try to disperse the protesters. Palestinians repeatedly barricaded themselves inside Al Aqsa mosque, located at the sacred site, and hurled stones, firebombs and fireworks at the invading policemen. The tension has extended beyond the holy city as violence has erupted in the West Bank and also the 1948 areas. With the attacks spilling into the 1948 areas, Netanyahu has warned Israelis to be on guard.
In another sign of the tensions, the Israeli occupation’s “mayor” in occupied Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, was seen carrying an assault rifle while visiting a Palestinian neighbourhood.
In all, five Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed in clashes.
— With inputs from AP