PLO Chief Negotiator: Calls to allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount are “inseparable parts of a plan [to establish] facts on the ground through ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”
Headline: "Erekat: An advisory meeting of the PLO Executive Committee tomorrow to discuss what is happening in Jerusalem"
"PLO Executive Committee Secretary Saeb Erekat announced that the committee will hold an advisory meeting tomorrow [Aug. 15, 2019], with the first item on its agenda being what is happening in Jerusalem…
And regarding the statements of Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan – who said that the internal situation at the Al-Aqsa Mosque must be changed (Erdan called to allow Jews to pray at the Temple Mount; see note below –Ed.) – Erekat, in statements to the [official PA] radio station Voice of Palestine, said that they are an inseparable part of a plan that is striving to impose the occupation's demographic and geographic facts on the ground through ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, thanks to the support that the occupation government is receiving from Torah [Jew US] Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
Erekat added that the statements regarding the lack of any connection between the Palestinian people and Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in addition to the illegal annexation of Jerusalem and the transfer of the American embassy [to it] (see note below –Ed.), do not create a right or obligation."
SaebErekat also holds the positions of Fatah Central Committee member and PLO Chief Negotiator.
The mention of Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan’s statements refer to comments he made in an interview with Radio 90FM on Aug. 13, 2019, in which he said: “I think that there is an injustice in the status quo that has existed [on the Temple Mount] since 1967, and that it is necessary to work to change it so that Jews in the future will be able God willing to also pray on the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site for the Jewish people and the third most significant site in Islam.”
US recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel - On Dec. 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump added that the final borders of Jerusalem will be determined during negotiations. The US embassy was transferred from Tel Aviv and opened in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, the anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 according to the Gregorian calendar.