Hamas official Bardawil called for Islamic support Top Hamas official Dr Salah Bardawil solicited an “urgent Arab and Islamic revolution to support holy Islamic sites in Palestine, especially al-Aqsa Mosque.” In a press statement issued on Thursday, the Palestinian leader beseeched Arab and Islamic nations to mobilise masses and hold conferences to condemn recent restrictions upon Islamic worship by Israeli forces in Jerusalem.
Checkpoints have prevented students and worshipers from accessing al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam, since Israeli settlers stormed the mosque Tuesday to commemorate the so-called “reunification of Jerusalem” following the Six-Day War.
Bardawil emphasised that repeated incursions by Israelis settlers and politicians, together with “Judaisation schemes,” pose a threat to the sanctity of Islamic holy sites.
“There is an apparent Palestinian, Arab and Islamic weakness in supporting and defending Islamic sanctities,\" the Hamas official asserted, adding this shortcoming fuelled Israeli prejudice.
The Hamas official criticized the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s guardianship of holy sites in the West Bank, describing it as \"passive.\"
He deemed events at al-Aqsa “a blow to the PLO, and a message to Arabs who seek to recognise the Jewish state and adopt the idea of ??a land exchange,” alluding to recent Arab League accessions to the possibility of Palestinian land swaps with Israel during peace talks in Washington.
Al-Aqsa Mosque director Nageh Pkairat confirmed that the Israeli Knesset had formally adopted a plan to allow more Jewish settlers to visit the holy site, and that legislation was in motion.
Palestinian and international bodies warned against a repeat of restrictions on the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, where checkpoints have similarly curbed Muslim access.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Jerusalemites demonstrated at the iconic Bab Amoud gates to Old Jerusalem. They organised marches, waved Palestinian flags and declared Jerusalem to be “Arab and Palestinian” occupied city.
The protest was violently repressed by Israeli settlers, backed by special units and horsemen who brutally attacked Palestinian men, women and children. Flags were confiscated and the Nablus street bus station was stormed. More than two dozen arrests ensued.
Israeli forces prevented photographers from recording the events.
A lockdown was imposed in Old Jerusalem and along main streets throughout the city. Businesses were forced to close, and citizens were unable to return home.
Settlers’ demonstrations continued into the early hours of the morning, with noisy celebrations, frenzied dances and racist slurs in Buraq square, in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.