Palestinian call to protect Al-Aqsa mosque

The Information Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority has urged the world bodies including the UN Security Council to play its role in protecting the Al-Aqsa mosque that is being targeted by the Israel occupation forces preventing the Muslim worshippers from practising their religious rites freely.

Issuing the statement the Ministry states:

"Israeli occupation police and extremist settlers attempted on Sunday morning (September 27, 2009), to implement a new wave of organized terror, through breaking into the courtyard of the mosque, firing tear gas bombs and live bullets against the Palestinians who were engaged in prayers resulting in injury to more than sixteen persons so far. Extremist Zionist groups' announcement to storm the mosque in order to perform religious rites on the occasion of the so-called 'Yom Kippur'.

"Accordingly, the Ministry of Information calls upon our people to gather at the mosque and to stand in the face of extremist Jewish groups. Furthermore, it calls upon the masses of Arab and Islamic nations, and lovers of justice in the world to protest the crime and to resist it by all legitimate means.

The Ministry also urges countries of the world, the Security Council, international human rights bodies, the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Islamic Conference organization to play its role in providing protection to the Al-Aqsa Mosque that exposed to the non-stop conspiracies targeting its existence, and preventing the worshippers from practising their religious rites freely.

The Ministry calls on all local, Arab and international media organizations to disclose the ugly face of the Israeli occupation that does not hold any value to the sanctities of Islam and Christianity, freedom of worship, and continues excavations that threaten the existence of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The statement adds that the Israeli police and soldiers breaking into Al-Aqsa Mosque, particularly, the Dome of the Rock Mosque and Al-Marwani Mosque remind them of 25th of September 1996, when a tunnel was opened under the Aqsa Mosque.

"It also brings to mind Sharon's black visit on 28th September 2000, the incident that set off a massive uprising in the entire Palestinian territories."

Finally, the similarity between the previous aggression and today, calls for urgent international action to protect Jerusalem, to defend its people, and its holy sites, because the delay on that means further aggression, killings and raids as well as creating new facts on the ground.

All these actions blow up all efforts to bring peace and to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."