JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel on Tuesday forced his way into East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to a Palestinian official.
“Ariel along with 10 Jewish settlers stormed the al-Aqsa mosque [compound] and toured the area under the protection of Israeli forces,” Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for Jerusalem’s Jordan-run Religious Endowments Authority, said in a statement.
Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, the director of Al-Aqsa mosque, for his part, blamed the Israeli government's support for the increasing number of visits by Israeli ministers and Knesset (parliament) members to the holy site.
“The Al-Aqsa mosque is facing repeated Israeli attacks in an attempt to change the status quo inside the mosque,” he told Anadolu Agency.
Al-Kiswani went on to call on the Arab and Islamic worlds to defend Al-Aqsa mosque against the continued Israeli violations.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount, ” claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, in which the Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Middle East War. It formally annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as its capital in a move never recognized by the international community.
