By Emin Avundukluoglu
ANKARA (AA) – The Turkish lawmaker so-chairing the Turkey-Palestine parliamentary friendship group on Monday slammed Israel's restrictions on places of worship for Muslims.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Hasan Turan, a ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party Istanbul deputy, reviewed the group's recent three-day visit to Palestine.
Turan criticized the illegal Israeli settlements occupying Palestinian territories, adding, “We can never accept Palestinians being imprisoned in their own territories. ”
Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the Jewish state’s “undivided and eternal capital” — a move never recognized by the international community.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territories ” and considers all Jewish settlement construction there as illegal.
Turan also criticized Israel's restrictions and violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the other sites sacred to Muslims.
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.
