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Israel Storms Al-Aqsa Mosque, Muslims Angered
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, July 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation forces stormed the Aqsa mosque compound, one of Islam's holiest sites, in occupied Jerusalem's Old City Sunday, as Palestinian Muslim worshippers resisted by hurling shoes and stones at Israeli soldiers.
A group of ultra-nationalist extremist Jews known as the Temple Mount Faithful inflamed tensions in the occupied city by laying a symbolic cornerstone for a new Jewish temple on Haram-al-Sharif, which some Israeli Jews claim is the site for an Israeli holy site, news agencies reported.
The messianic group won approval from Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday to lay the 4.5-ton marble stone at a gate to the Old City near the al-Aqsa mosque site - where Israelis claim the so-called Temple Mount stood, but were denied permission to hold the ceremony on the mosque itself, the French news agency AFP reported.
Saturday evening, about 4,000 extremists Jews marched around the walls of the Old City to begin commemorations of the destruction of the so-called first and second Temples.
The Temple Mount Faithful say that "not immediately rebuilding the Temple" is "the biggest failure and sin of our time", BBC's online service reported.
"The day of the building of the temple is drawing near," Temple Mount Faithful leader Gershom Salomon shouted through a megaphone, BBC online added.
A large Palestinian crowd gathered in an attempt to stop the Jewish group from violating the Muslim holy site that houses the Dome of the Rock and Aqsa mosque.
Several loud explosions were heard as hundreds of Israeli occupation police forces fired tear gas canisters to disperse the Palestinians in the event, BBC online reported.
Seven Palestinians were so far reported injured in the Israeli barrage.
"We have deployed major reinforcements," Jerusalem police chief Mikki Levy told Israeli radio.
Levy had insisted that the Temple Mount group would not be allowed "under any circumstances" to enter the holy site that lies in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem and is at the heart of the Israeli-Muslim conflict.
Meanwhile, the stone laying has triggered fury throughout the occupied Palestinian territories and calls for Palestinians to turn out in force to block the so-called Temple Mount Faithful from violating Islam's third holiest site.
Jerusalem mufti (highest Islamic scholar), Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, described the Israeli Supreme Court's approval to the Temple Mount Faithful to lay a cornerstone at the Bab al-Maghareba gate near al-Aqsa mosque as unjust and provocative.
Jordan's opposition Islamic Action Front (IAF) party exhorted Muslim armies to rise to defend Jerusalem.
In a seven-point statement to the press, the IAF also called for an Arab "day of rage" to be held across Arab capitals on Friday August 3 and for an Arab and an Islamic summit to
be convened as soon as possible.
"This dangerous development threatens one of our most sacred Islamic sites and threatens to explode the situation in the region. It is also a provocation of all Arab and Muslim people," the IAF said in its statement.
"We call on the Arab and Islamic armies to do their real duty and protect Jerusalem and confront this international crime that the Jews have perpetrated," the statement said.
The IAF also called for a summit of Arab and Islamic leaders to take "a decisive and clear stand against this crime, and the necessary practical and effective steps to confront it".
Dr. Hanna Attallah, the official spokesman of the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, also condemned the Jewish messianic group's provocative act, confirming that any violation of a Muslim holy site in Jerusalem is provocative to Palestinian Christians as much as Muslims.
Egypt had urged permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to intervene to stop the Jewish group's ceremony and Arab leaders had warned that the Jewish group's move would be a provocation.
The Palestinian Authority warned of the repercussions of the ceremony and called on Palestinians to demonstrate in large numbers to "defend the mosque compound."
Speaking on Voice of Palestine radio, Palestinian legislative council speaker Ahmed Qorei described the action as a "blatant challenge to the feelings of all Arabs" and warned it would pour more fuel on the fire of the Middle East conflict, AFP reported.
Appalled by the rising number of Palestinian dead since the outbreak of the Intifada or uprising in September, which has - according to Western figures - so far claimed about 550 Palestinian lives, Arab officials around the region have classed the Israeli ceremony as another dangerous step toward all-out war.
"Israel has not learned from its own dangerous mistakes," Hanan Ashrawi, the former Palestinian cabinet member and new spokeswoman for the Arab League, told reporters, according to AFP.
The Palestinian Intifada began after far-rightist Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon paid a provocative visit to the al-Aqsa compound, which many saw as a bid by the former general to oust then prime minister Ehud Barak, whose peace talks with the Palestinians had fallen apart.
Hawkish Sharon went on to crush Barak in February elections in the midst of the uprising, with a pledge to take a hardline approach in dealing with the Palestinians.
Israel came into existence in 1948 after Jewish groups launched a war against their Muslim neighbors in 1948 and declared today's state of Israel. Arabs and Muslims believe Israel is an extension of the colonial period that saw the occupation of Muslim and Arab countries by Western powers.
Israel, backed by some Western powers, claims Jerusalem as its capital, but this is not recognized by Muslims or the United Nations.
The creation of Israel was the culmination of the Zionist movement, whose aim was a homeland for Jews scattered all over the world following the Diaspora. Israel is also founded on a set of religious myths that are staunchly disputed by Arabs and Muslims, the original owners of the land.
Much of the history of the region since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one side and Muslims, mostly represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Israel's Arab Muslim neighbors, on the other. Millions of Palestinians were displaced, and several wars were fought involving Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
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