AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – A
senior Palestinian cleric has warned against any desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Zionist settlers in the Old City of Al-Quds.
The Grand Mufti of al-Quds Sheikh Muhammad Hussein said in a statement on Monday that the circumstances were turning malign amid a series of calls by Zionist settler groups to show up in large numbers at the compound in the coming weeks during Jewish holidays.
He said frequent incursions by Zionist troops and settlers had turned into systematic violations aimed at changing the status quo of the holy site and totally or partially Judaizing the mosque.
“These calls come in the context of the frantic campaign led by the Israeli occupying regime to Judaize the holy city as planned.”
“What the city of al-Quds is facing aims at Judaizing it completely, dividing the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque temporally and spatially, changing the features of the Arab and Islamic city, and creating a new fait accompli that prevents Arabs and Muslims from reaching it,” the cleric added.
The Grand Mufti also appealed to Muslims around the world to do what they can to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Al-Quds.
A day earlier, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called on all Palestinians to hold “days of anger” protests if Zionist settlers continue their acts of aggression against the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Hamas spokesman Mohammed Hamadeh urged all Palestinian masses in the occupied Al-Quds City and those in those territories occupied by the Tel Aviv regime in 1948 to intensify their presence at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
He noted that the measure is intended to demonstrate to the occupying regime that their holy site is not alone and has devoted people protecting it.
The Hamas official stressed that the daily settler break-ins at the Al-Aqsa Mosque are orchestrated and protected by the security and military institutions of the Zionist regime.
Spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in July that the Zionist regime was undermining the security and stability of the region, warning that the regime is dragging the region into a religious war that would have serious ramifications.
In another development, the Zionist regime has reportedly started to change the Arabic names of historic streets in the occupied Old City of Al-Quds into Hebrew, as part of its efforts to Judaize the occupied Palestinian territories, an expert on the issue says.
Fakhri Abu Diab, member of the Defense of Silwan Land Committee and a researcher on Al-Quds affairs said on Sunday that crews from the municipality recently replaced the wall sign of “al-Wad Street” in the Old City with the Hebrew name “Hagevura”, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
Abu Diab described the move as “part of Israel’s efforts to Israelize and Judaize the holy city, distort its general scene and falsify its Islamic and Arab identity, history and culture.”