BEIRUT, 30 July 2004 — Lebanon’s most senior Shiite religious leader yesterday condemned Israel for trying to divert attention from such issues as its West Bank wall by speculating about possible Jewish extremists’ threats against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
In a statement faxed to The Associated Press yesterday, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah commented on Israeli Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi’s weekend statement that there was a growing threat of an attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Hanegbi said he did not know of a specific plot, but that intelligence assessments said the danger of such an action was growing.
“By raising this issue, Israel is trying to distract attention away from vital matters over which a controversy is raging, such as the issues of the wall, settlements and withdrawal from Gaza,” Fadlallah said. Israel faces sharp international criticism of its plans to separate Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank with a series of fences and walls that eventually will stretch 680 kilometers.
The UN General Assembly last week overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding Israel dismantle the wall and compensate Palestinians, in accordance with a decision by the International Court of Justice. Arab countries have threatened to bring the issue to the UN Security Council.
Arabs also have expressed skepticism about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plans to withdraw Israeli settlers from all of Gaza and from four isolated West Bank enclaves.
The site on which Al-Aqsa sits, known to Muslims as Haram Al-Sharif was taken over by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War.
