Arab News 11 Ottobre 2008

RAMALLAH: The leader of the Islamic Movement in northern Israel, Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, said Israeli policemen were brazenly violating the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israeli policemen “drank alcohol and committed adultery inside the mosque,” he said.

Salah said Israeli authorities had plans to establish the largest synagogue in the world extending up to the yard of the Al Aqsa Mosque and also turn Al-Buraq Wall (Western Wall), Al-Marwani Mosque underneath Al-Aqsa and Islamic cemeteries into synagogues.

Israeli authorities, Salah said, were bent on stalling any project concerning the renovation of the Al Aqsa Mosque and called for establishing an international Islamic fund “to preserve the occupied Jerusalem, its mosques, houses, lands and sanctities.”

Salah, who was indicted several times by Israeli courts and subsequently imprisoned, pointed out that a large crater was formed near the Qaitbay fountain, only 50 meters away from the Dome of the Rock.

He said that as a result of the ongoing Israeli excavations, cracks have appeared in the buildings and schools along the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque as well as the houses located in the south of the mosque.

“The only way to eliminate all threats to Jerusalem and the Islamic holy places is to end the Israeli occupation,” Salah said.

Meanwhile, Al Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said that hundreds of extremist Jews entered the Al Aqsa Mosque yesterday with the help of Israeli police to mark Yom Kippur.

The foundation said that the intruders carried out some Jewish rituals inside the mosque under the protection of the Israeli occupation army who ordered Muslim mosque guards not to stop or come closer to the Jewish groups.

The foundation urged “Palestinian citizens in the occupied territories” to frequent the Aqsa Mosque in a bid to “thwart Israeli plans to Judaize it.”

Meanwhile, a group of Jewish youths assaulted an Arab who drove in the eastern part of Acre city inside Israel late on Wednesday.

The sources said that the incident touched off large-scale rioting between Jews and Arabs, resulting in extensive damage to dozens of cars and shops.

The unrest erupted hours after Jews began observing the Yom Kippur. The Arab was going home in a neighborhood in the eastern part of the city when Jewish youths attacked him claiming he was deliberately making excessive noise.

News of the incident spread to the surrounding Arab neighborhoods of the town, including the old city, prompting hundreds to take to the streets.

Israeli police used force to disperse the crowds and restore order in the city.

by Mohammed Mar’i

Source >  Arab News | oct 10