Cleric on PA TV: Israelis like "rats burrow under the ground" of Al Aqsa

Palestinian cleric:

• Fatah repeats libel: Israel is carrying out "plan to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque"

• Fatah: Temple Mount is "a completely Islamic site to which the Jews have no right"

• Hamas justified murder of Israeli with Al-Aqsa libel: "While blessing this heroic operation, we emphasize that harming the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line, and that this operation is a response to warnings regarding the danger of what the occupation is currently doing, and what it intends to do at the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

A Palestinian cleric compared Israelis to rats, claiming Israel is excavating under the Al-Aqsa Mosque like "rats burrow under the ground only for evil and destruction." He also stated, in the interview on official Palestinian Authority TV, that due to Israel's digs the mosque has "no foundations now":

Sheikh Raed Da'na from the Religious Source of Authority in Jerusalem: "The blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque has no foundations now... Al-Aqsa is now empty of the rocks and that which supports it, due to the Israeli machine that is excavating under it (sic., Israel does not excavate under the Temple Mount), as rats burrow under the ground only for evil and destruction."

[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, July 23, 2018]

This statement is just one in an endless stream of false accusations by Palestinian leaders that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is "in danger" and that Israel is carrying out a deliberate plan to destroy it. At times, PA leaders have intensified the repetition of this libel in order to ignite fury among Palestinians and urge them to use violence and carry out terror attacks against Israelis. This was the case before and during the terror waves in 2014 and 2015/16 in which dozens of Israelis were murdered and hundreds wounded.

Therefore it is not surprising that Hamas was quick to justify this week's murder of Israeli Ari Fuld by a Palestinian teenager with the alleged "danger" to Al-Aqsa. Hamas presented "the heroic operation" as a reaction to Israel's "harming Al-Aqsa":

"While blessing this heroic operation, we emphasize that harming the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line, and that this operation is a response to warnings regarding the danger of what the occupation is currently doing, and what it intends to do at the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Sept. 16, 2018]

For decades, Palestinian leaders have alleged that Israel is destroying the mosque, and it is not the first time Palestinians have referred to Israel as rats or mice eating away at the foundations of the mosque.

Similarly, Palestinian Media Watch reported that PA Chief Religious Justice Tayseer Tamimi claimed that Al-Aqsa was "hanging in midair" because Israel had removed its foundations by injecting chemicals into the rocks:

Tayseer Tamimi, PA Chief Religious Justice: "The [Israeli] excavations' purpose is to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. In fact, its foundations have been removed. Chemical acids were injected into the rocks to dissolve them. The soil and the pillars [were moved] so the mosque is hanging in midair. There is an Israeli plan to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to build the Temple."

[Official PA TV, June 9, 2009]

Earlier this month, Abbas' advisor and Supreme Shari'ah Judge of Palestine Mahmoud Al-Habbash "emphasized the need to stop the ongoing crime against the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is bowing under the yoke of the occupation and is being subjected to criminal attempts to divide, destroy, and Judaize it." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 8, 2018]

Likewise, the official PA daily described the visits of Jews to the Temple Mount as "invasions of the [Al-Aqsa] Mosque." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 11, 2018]

The PA, Fatah, and their leaders claim all of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall are integral parts of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and have repeatedly emphasized that "Jews have no right to it."

Recently, Abbas' Fatah Movement reiterated this in an official announcement:

Official PA TV newsreader 1: "The Fatah Movement emphasized that Israel has prepared a plan - and began carrying it out a while ago - to destroy the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque through the ongoing excavations underneath the mosque (sic.)"

Official PA TV newsreader 2: "Official [Fatah] Movement Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi said in a press release... that the Al-Aqsa Mosque - [and everything] aboveground, under it, and around it - is a completely Islamic site to which the Jews have no right."

[Official PA TV News, July 26, 2018]

It should be noted that Israel doesn't excavate under the Temple Mount.

PMW reported on a similar statement by PA Minister of Religious Affairs Yusuf Ida'is who said that "the excavations that the occupation institutions are conducting underneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque... threaten its structures, plazas" and that the Israeli "violations" are "advancing in a systematic and planned manner up to the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the establishment of their alleged Temple." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 18, 2018]

The Palestinians are adamant about denying any Jewish historical ties to Jerusalem in general and in particular to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, which they refer to as the Al-Buraq Wall, named after a miraculous flying steed on which Islam's Prophet Muhammad is said to have rode during his Night Journey from Mecca to "al aqsa mosque", i.e., "the farthest mosque" (Quran, Sura 17). Therefore the Palestinians refer to the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem as "the Al-Buraq Wall."

The following are longer excerpts of the statements referred to above:

“Temple organizations” refer to religious Jewish movements including the Temple Mount Institute, the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, the Initiative for Jewish Freedom on the Temple Mount, and Students for the Temple Mount, which spread awareness of the importance of the Temple Mount in Judaism and encourage people to visit the site.

Break-in/Invasion/attack of Al-Aqsa Mosque - The PA and its leaders misrepresent all of the Temple Mount as an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore, they vilify any presence of Jews on the mount as an "invasion." It should be noted that Jews who visit the Temple Mount only enter some sections of the open areas, and do not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Israeli police ban Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount because of threats of violence by Palestinians.