Ramallah: An extremist Israeli politician who has been accused of inciting radical Jews to continue their raids of occupied Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque has pledged to change the status quo at the mosque in favour of continued Jewish incursions.
Right wing Israeli MP Moshe Feiglin said during his latest incursion into Islam’s third holiest site that he will work to change the status quo of the mosque to which Jews have traditionally been barred.
Feiglin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, visited the site under tight security on Sunday accompanied by a security detail appointed under orders from Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Thursday. Hundreds of Feiglin’s extremist supporters accompanied him on the incursion.
Israeli news site Ynet News quoted Feiglin as stating, “The fact that there is a necessity for a security escort at an hour when Arabs are walking around here freely without any fear, says more than anything who feels like a visitor here and who feels like the owner of this site. We will change this reality with the help of God.”
Feiglin’s visits to Al Haram Al Sharif (which the Jews call the Temple Mount) are frequent and he is a campaigner for freedom of worship at the site for Jews.
After a brief and highly controversial closure of the holy site, the Israeli regime reopened Al Haram Al Sharif to Muslim women and Muslim men over the age of 50 on Friday. On Sunday, the site was again reopened to Jewish worshippers, in violation of the custom that requires Jews to pray at the Al Buraq Wall, which the Israelis refer to as the Wailing Wall.
On his Twitter account on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on all Knesset members to work to calm the situation at Al Haram Al Sharif and show “responsibility and restraint”.
Ahmad Al Tibi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, has rejected Netanyahu’s request for calm and restraint on the issue of Al Haram Al Sharif, holding the Israeli Prime Minister and his government fully responsible for the escalation of tension in the holy city.
“My existence at Al Haram Al Sharif is normal but the existence of the extremist Jews in the holy site is incitement and provocation,” said Al Tibi in a statement.
Al Tibi said that Netanyahu, his Israeli cabinet members and MPs are playing with fire, and those officials are inflaming the situation by raiding Al Haram Al Sharif.
“Round the clock Jewish attempts to change the status quo in Al Haram Al Sharif worry and disturb the lives of the Jerusalemites and all Muslims around the world,” he said. “The only solution is continuous international pressure on Netanyahu and his government and the permanent existence of Jerusalemites and Muslims inside Al Haram Al Sharif to defend it against the Jewish raids.”
Tensions in Al Haram Al Sharif and the entire occupied East Jerusalem have risen following the shooting of Jewish far right colonist Yehuda Glick who actively campaigns for Jewish raids of Al Haram Al Sharif.
Fakhri Abu Diyab, a member of the Higher Committee in Defence of Jerusalem, said that the general conditions in the holy city are extremely tough and challenging. “The Israeli government is going on with its plans without paying attention to anybody or anything,” he told Gulf News.
Abu Diyab said that the Israeli regime has imposed heavy taxes on Palestinian Jerusalemites, which critics say is designed to incentivise their departure from the city in order to complete the Judaisation campaign there.
“All the Israeli institutions have been imposing taxes, fines and financial penalties against the Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem as a collective punishment,” he said.
The Israeli armed forces have also detained several Palestinian women who have participated in protecting Al Haram Al Sharif at different gates of the holy site.
Abu Diyab said the situation, especially after the Jewish visitors were given access to the holy site, is tense, and that he is expecting fierce confrontations with the Israeli armed forces and colonists at night. He stressed that confrontations usually take place in the evening and at night.
