PA renews religious incitement that led to recent terror attacks:
Al-Aqsa Mosque under Israeli "attack"
PA Minister of Religious Affairs:
"Over a hundred attacks" against Al-Aqsa Mosque in January
PA Grand Mufti:
Israel aspires "to build the alleged Temple on the ruins of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque"
Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs:
UNESCO must prevent Israel from "destroying the human heritage in Jerusalem"
The Palestinian Authority has renewed the libel that Israel is trying to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The three most important PA religious leaders have all stated this month that Al-Aqsa is threatened by Israel. This religious incitement in the name of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is exactly what Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party used to incite Palestinians to carry out acts of terror, including murder, during the recent two-month terror campaign in Jerusalem. During October and November 2014, Palestinians murdered 11 Israelis using guns, knives, and cars, and wounded dozens. At that time, Palestinian Media Watch documented that Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash acknowledged the PA leadership's full endorsement of the killings:
"We kiss every forehead, every hand and even every foot that carries out Ribat (religious conflict/ war over land claimed to be Islamic) at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and in Jerusalem... We are behind them. The leadership is with them... We are with them in every movement, in every action and every deed."
[Official PA TV, Nov. 5, 2014]
Now the PA has renewed this Al-Aqsa Mosque incitement:
- The PA Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein said that Israel aspires "to build the alleged Temple on the ruins of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque." [Feb. 12, 2015]
- Abbas' Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash said that UNESCO must prevent Israel from "destroying the human heritage in Jerusalem." [Feb. 11, 2015]
- The PA Minister of Religious Affairs Sheikh Yusuf Ida'is warned that since January, Israel has made "over a hundred attacks and incidents of desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs)" and that "the Al-Aqsa Mosque is in grave and direct danger and that with every sunrise, this danger grows." [Feb. 5, 2015]
The PA considers any presence of Jews on the Temple Mount an "attack" or "invasion," and denies all Jewish history in Jerusalem. In addition, it denies that the Western Wall - Judaism's holiest site since the destruction of the Temple 2,000 years ago - was a Jewish holy site in the past. The PA falsely teaches that Jews never prayed there prior to the 20th century.
See more examples of PA's repetition of the libel that Israel is destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The following are longer excerpts of the reports on the three PA religious leaders repeating the libel that Israel is trying to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque:
Headline: "Ida'is: The occupation opened the new year with over a hundred attacks and incidents of desecration of the holy places"
"[PA] Minister of Religious Affairs Sheikh Yusuf Ida'is said that the occupation had opened the first month of the new year with over a hundred attacks and incidents of desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs)... He explained that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque is in grave and direct danger, and that with every sunrise, this danger grows - [a fact that] requires the consolidation of a mode of operation on the Islamic, Arab and international levels, in order to save it [the Al-Aqsa Mosque] from destruction, division or [from] the building of the alleged Temple. He stressed that the Al-Aqsa Mosque, with all its territories, plazas (i.e., including the Temple Mount), buildings, porticoes and foundations both above and below ground, is an exclusively Islamic and Muslim right."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 5, 2015]
Headline: "Grand Mufti warns of the naming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque 'Temple Mount'"
"[PA] Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories and Preacher at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Muhammad Hussein warned about the placement of a sign by the occupation [Jerusalem] municipality near the Council Gate ( i.e., entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount), with the inscription, 'Temple Mount.'
The Mufti said this step came as part of the attempts to divide the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews, extend their influence over it and establish facts on the ground inside it, like what happened at the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron, in order to realize their aspirations to build the alleged Temple on the ruins of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Mufti explained that with the elections of the occupation authorities approaching, all the parties are trying to draw the votes of the extreme right by increasing the attack on the Palestinian people and its holy places. He emphasized that the Israeli plan to Judaize Jerusalem and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to lay hands on them, is an illusion, because the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque with its courtyards, porticoes and all [other] parts, both those above ground and those below - is the exclusive right of Muslims. He also noted that Jerusalem would retain its Islamic character and Arab identity, and that the occupation would not steal its character and identity, no matter how long it continues its crimes and its falsification of facts."
[Ma'an (independent Palestinian news agency) Feb. 12, 2015]
Headline: "Al-Habbash demands that UNESCO intervene to prevent the falsification of the facts and history in Jerusalem"
"Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Supreme Shari'ah Judge and the President's [Mahmoud Abbas'] Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, demanded today [Feb. 11, 2015], that UNESCO urgently and immediately intervene to prevent the Israeli occupation from falsifying the facts and destroying the human heritage in Jerusalem.
In a press release, Al-Habbash warned of the severity of the escalatory measure implemented by the Israeli occupation municipality crews, in placing a sign in Arabic, Hebrew and English calling the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque 'the Temple of Solomon' near the Inspector's Gate (Council Gate) [parenthesis in source], one of the gates of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Al-Habbash said that Israel's changing of names in the Holy City is a kind of intentional falsification of history and heritage, and a desperate attempt to deny the [city's] Arab and Islamic character and force a new, invented character - the Jewish character. He noted that this was a most dangerous step, heralding grave consequences. Al-Habbash explained that, despite the Judaization actions carried out by the Israeli occupation government and its various branches against Jerusalem, and despite the attempts to eradicate its Arab and Islamic characteristics and the continuing land expropriation and construction of settlements on its land, this will not change the fact that it [Jerusalem] is the religious, political and spiritual capital of Palestine, to which the Jews have no right."
[WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency), Feb. 11, 2015]