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Israeli Extremists Continue to Threaten Al-Aqsa
JERUSALEM, Oct 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An extremist group in Israel, the Temple Mount Faithful, was set to stage a second ceremony to lay another 4.5-ton stone near the compound of Al-Haram Al-Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary - Islam's third holiest site) as a precedence to demolishing the compound and rebuilding in its place a Jewish temple, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Israeli police, after initially granting the extremists authorization, have banned the ultra-nationalist Israelis from staging the ceremony due to security concerns, police said Wednesday.
The Noble Sanctuary is located in the Old City, which lies in illegally occupied Arab East Jerusalem.
In July, the same group of far-right Israelis briefly laid another 4.5-ton stone outside the gates of the Old City.
That symbolic stone laying was unanimously condemned as a provocation by the Arab world.
In response to threats from the Temple Mount Faithful, Palestinian Muslims in Jerusalem were denied access to the site to worship. Israeli occupation authorities closed roads from East Jerusalem to the Noble Sanctuary and barred all Muslim men under the age of 40 from entering the area.
These heightened restrictions further illustrate "Israel's ongoing siege of Jerusalem which prevents all Palestinians, Muslim and Christian, who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering Jerusalem to worship," reported the Washington D.C.-based American Muslims for Jerusalem (AMJ).
The organization went on to warn that, "The violations of the Noble Sanctuary by the Temple Mount Faithful are direct attacks on one of Islam's holiest sites and that such provocative acts, backed by Israeli approval, will only incite further hostilities and the killing of more Palestinians."
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed and 150 wounded since the Peres/Arafat meeting last week on Wednesday, with more than 40 killed since September 11.
"Israel is using these provocations as a pretext for tightening its siege on Jerusalem," said AMJ, adding that, "Preventing Palestinians from worshipping in Jerusalem to accommodate an extremist Israeli group is collective punishment.
"Tensions in the region will not calm as long as Israeli occupation denies Palestinians their basic rights. The right to worship freely is chief among them," the group asserted.
AMJ also called on the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to ensure that such provocations do not go unabated.
"President Bush's efforts to build an international coalition with Muslim and Arab support hinge[s] on his claim that he is not declaring war on Islam or the Muslim world. These claims must be supported with action. The President must not remain silent and allow a direct Israeli attack on Islam and the rights of Muslims to pray at al-Aqsa. Allowing such provocations to go on will continue to devastate America's credibility and belie the claims that it bears no animosity toward Islam or Muslims."
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