There is no escaping the sheer duplicity and deviousness that pervade every facet of Israeli thinking when it comes to dealing with the Palestinian people on any matter. What is clear now more than ever is that the occupation authorities are intent on but one thing — the humiliation of every Palestinian. The latest provocation comes just 24 hours after Israeli authorities in occupied Jerusalem agreed to remove surveillance and security cameras and dismantle metal detectors at the entrance to Al Haram Al Sharif, the third-holiest shrine in Islam.
For two weeks, the occupied city has been on tenterhooks after the occupation security forces imposed the new measures at the entrances to the shrine that includes Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
The provocative measures, that ignored internationally agreed rights to unfettered and unbridled access to Al Haram Al Sharif for the faithful, were imposed after an incident in which two Israeli soldiers were killed, with the Zionist regime making an unsubstantiated and unverifiable assertion that the gunmen had fled into the holy shrine after the attack.
After an international outcry and two weeks of sustained street action and protests, the Israelis saw the error of their ways — or so it seemed — and agreed to revoke the illegal physical impediments. That in itself is not enough, with other measures and restrictions that have been implemented on the shrine needing to be removed too — though this was a positive step forward in ending the crisis.
However, thereafter, Israel has simply gone to make matters worse — much worse. On Friday, members of the occupation forces refused entry to any man under 50 to Al Haram Al Sharif. This act is an outrage against the faithful, contravenes every written agreement on access to the holy shrine, is a violation of the very basic tenet of a right to prayer, and is deliberately designed to provoke and intimidate Palestinians. It is yet another assault on the heritage and history of Palestinians, is an affront to every Arab, and is a wilful and wanton insult of Muslims.
The occupied city erupted in violence as a direct result of this provocation. It is a crisis entirely of Israel’s making and responsibility for the deaths that will follow will lie wholly at the feet of the occupation administration and its security forces.
Once more, there is blood on the hand of Israel.
