Palestinian Authority: The ‘Covetous’ Jews ‘Defile’ the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Want to Destroy It
Palestinians walk at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City May 21, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
One of the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s annual libels is to blame the 1969 arson at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Israel, and to claim that it was a Jew who set fire to the religious site.
In fact, the arsonist, Michael Rohan, was an Australian Christian with a mental health disorder. But this doesn’t bother the PA. Along with turning Rohan into an “extremist terrorist Jew” and “a settler,” the PA has expanded the libel, and now claims that Israel “collaborated and stopped the water to the Al-Aqsa Mosque” and deliberately “delayed in sending fire trucks” [Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Aug. 21, 2023]
The PA Minister of Religious Affairs repeated the libel last month, claiming Israel is getting closer to its goal, which is “eliminating the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque”:
PA Minister of Religious Affairs Hatem Al-Bakri: “There is a plan by the occupation that has targeted this site [the Al-Aqsa Mosque]. This plan was prepared 50 years before the establishment of the State of Israel [in 1948]. They prepared these plans, and they are carrying them out every day. They are attempting to reach the final point, which is eliminating the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the acts of harm are continuing against all the Christian and Muslim holy sites.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV News, Aug. 21, 2023]
This year, the anniversary of the arson served additional purpose, mainly the repetition of another PA libel — that Israel plans to destroy the mosque and build the “alleged Temple.” The PA uses the word “alleged,” because it claims there never was a Temple. It also uses the term to incite religious violence.
One of the PA’s top religious authorities, the PA Grand Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, warned of Israel’s “plans” to “put their hands on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” and said this would lead to a “fierce religious war”:
[PA] Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories and preacher at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Muhammad Hussein called on the civilians to ascend to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and fill it during the anniversary of its arson by the occupation authorities…
He explained that … the occupation authorities are attempting to execute the extremist settlers’ plan to put their hands on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque … as part of the series of extremist acts that the occupation authorities and extremists are carrying out to harm Jerusalem and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and this is in order to tighten their control over them and build the alleged Temple, Heaven forbid. He warned against the consequences of this aggression, and against the outbreak of a fierce religious war.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 22, 2023]
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has documented that the PA describe any presence of Jews at the Temple Mount as a “defilement” and an “invasion” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Two days after the above statement, the PA’s Supreme Fatwa Council — headed by the same Grand Mufti — further tried to stir up emotions among Palestinians, claiming that Israel has “begun to carry out successive measures to announce the execution of building their alleged Temple.”
The council repeated the PA’s general claim that the Temple Mount — referred to in its entirety by the PA as “the Al-Aqsa Mosque” — is “an Islamic waqf that belongs to the Muslims only.” With an antisemitic twist, the council called on “the covetous” — i.e., the Jews — to forget their “false history”:
Headline: “The [Palestinian Supreme] Fatwa Council: The blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque [i.e., including the Temple Mount and Western Wall] is an Islamic waqf that belongs to the Muslims only”
“The [Palestinian] Supreme Fatwa Council … said that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque is currently experiencing a painful and serious reality, not because the occupation has succeeded in reaching an advanced stage in taking control of it, but rather because the occupation authorities have now begun to carry out successive measures to announce the execution of building their alleged Temple … The council called on the covetous ones [the Jews] who seek a false history for themselves to wake up from their nightmare, as the Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic waqf of all the Muslims in the entire world, and they will defend it with all their might.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Aug. 24, 2023]
To combat the “defilement” of “extremist settlers,” the Palestinian National Council — the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) — called for violence and terror, using the PA euphemism “resistance,” vowing that “Palestine” will be liberated:
The [Palestinian] National Council said … our people wherever it is, with its unity and resistance, will continue to stand firm and defend it [the Al-Aqsa Mosque] with all means until liberating all the Palestinian territories, and foremost among them the jewel in the crown, Jerusalem, from the occupation.
It said: ‘The fact that the fascist [Israeli] government is giving its extremist settlers a free hand to defile the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and break into it will not give it legitimacy or sovereignty over one inch of this blessed land. All of their plans and dreams will be shattered on the rock of our people’s resolve and resistance.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 22, 2023]
The terms “all means,” “all means of resistance,” and “all forms,” are used by PA leaders to include all types of violence, including deadly terror attacks against Israeli civilians, such as car rammings, stabbings, and shootings, as well as throwing rocks and Molotov Cocktails.
An anonymous preacher speaking on the anniversary of the 1969 arson in a mosque in Ramallah stated that “the fire of the Zionist plot to defile the mosque and Judaize Jerusalem” is “still burning”:
Anonymous preacher: “This fire, which is still burning us at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, and Palestine until now — it is the fire of the Zionist plot to defile the mosque and Judaize Jerusalem.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Aug. 18, 2023]
Likewise, PLO official Ramzi Khouri urged Palestinians to “mobilize all efforts” to save the mosque from the “the projects and plans of Judaization”:
PLO Executive Committee member Ramzi Khouri called to mobilize all efforts to save the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first direction of [Muslim] prayer and the third holiest mosque, from the projects and plans of Judaization that the Israeli occupation government and extremist settler and religious Jewish groups are carrying out.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 21, 2023]
All these statements echo a call by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, in which he urged Palestinians to “escalate the peaceful popular resistance” — a euphemism for terror.
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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