RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli police yesterday barred Arab Palestinian Muslims from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for prayers because thousands were planning to protest the plan of Jewish extremists to pray in the compound.
The police restricted the entrance to the complex for fear of rioting, but the extreme right-wing Jewish activists who defiantly vowed to flock to the holy site did not show up. However, only Muslim men over the age of 50, who hold Israeli identification cards, were allowed to enter. The age for women was not subject to restrictions.
However, hundreds of Muslim worshippers held a demonstration outside Jerusalem’s Old City to protest the Israeli decision.
Ahmad Tibi, Arab member of Israeli Knesset belonging to United Arab Party criticized the police decision to ban Muslim worshippers.
“This decision harms freedom of worship, and it is actually the entrance of the rightist pyromaniacs that should be banned — not the entrance of Muslims,” he said. “The Al-Aqsa Mosque is in our blood; we will never abandon it,” said Sheikh Kamal Khateeb, vice chairman of the Islamic Movement. The spokesman for the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, Zahi Njaidat, said that the aim of the demonstration was to prevent “radical right-wing groups” from “gaining control” of Al-Aqsa.
“There are radical groups which called for the masses to come and Judaize this place. We have come to tell them that we are at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and they cannot change this,” Najidat said.
Extreme right-wing Jewish groups had pasted posters in recent days “calling on the masses to arrive at the Al-Aqsa” on the day after Jewish Passover holiday, in order “to Judaize the holiest place in the world, which is being shamefully desecrated.”
