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PA religious council head: Israel's goal is to "empty Jerusalem of its Palestinian Arab residents," and to "destroy the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and replace it with Solomon’s Temple"

Headline: "Dr. Issa: The Israeli plan to revoke the citizenship and isolate 124,000 Jerusalem Palestinians"
      "Secretary-General of the [PA] Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places [and Fatah Revolutionary Council member] Dr. Hanna Issa warned... in an interview with Radio Mawtini today, Monday [Aug. 28, 2017], against the Israeli plan that the Israeli government is carrying out in the holy city [of Jerusalem], whose goal is to empty Jerusalem of its Palestinian Arab residents... He added: '[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's government allows the extremist right, led by [Israeli] Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan, to inaugurate Jewish synagogues in areas surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque (apparently referring to the inauguration of a synagogue in the Silwan neighborhood; see note below –Ed.),' and mentioned their intentions to destroy the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and replace it with Solomon’s Temple."

Silwan synagogue – the Ohel Shlomo Synagogue– A historical Yemenite synagogue in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem, which was destroyed after the British expelled the Yemenite Jewish residents of the neighborhood in the 1930s amid Arab riots. In 2015, the Jerusalem District Court evicted an Arab family that was living in the building, and members of the Jewish Ateret Cohanim organization moved in. The synagogue is now being restored (2017).Israeli Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel and Israeli Parliament Member Mordhay Yogev were present at a Torah dedication ceremony at the synagogue, on Aug. 24, 2017.

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