PA warns against "attacks" against Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, everything surrounding Al-Aqsa is part of it, Israel invents "false history"

Headline: "The [PA] government warns against a continuation of the occupation's attacks in the occupied capital"

"The [PA] national unity government warned against a continuation of the Israeli occupation's attacks against our capital, occupied Arab Jerusalem, and against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Official [PA] Government Spokesman Yusuf Al-Mahmoud held the occupation government responsible for the attempts and crazy fantasies to harm the true, historical, and legal status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the last of which was placing construction and renovation equipment such as wooden and metal poles known as 'scaffolding' at the western side of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (i.e., the Western Wall), in addition to the continued excavations under the foundations of the mosque (sic., Israel does not excavate under the Temple Mount; see note below).

The official spokesman explained that these excavations are a product of the colonialist period that has passed from the world, and they are the realization of the arrogant and unfair orientalist worldviews that have targeted our country and our holy sites, and an experiment to change and distort the true history and invent a false history that will serve colonialism and the occupation.

Al-Mahmoud emphasized that the true history and all of the international regulations and laws clarify that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque sits on 144 dunams (i.e., approximately 35.6 acres) and is surrounded by walls, and that everything that is connected to these walls from the outside also constitutes a part of the blessed mosque, which is in the Old City of occupied Arab Jerusalem. Therefore, everything that the occupation is doing in all of Jerusalem is void and constitutes aggression against our people, our Arab nation, and our Islamic and Christian nation."

Excavations under the Temple Mount - The Israeli daily Haaretz has stated that the excavations do not reach beneath the mosque: "Despite complaints from the Islamic Movement and Palestinian groups, not a single dig penetrates beneath the [Temple] Mount." [Haaretz, May 24, 2016]