The Arab and Islamic world have voiced deep concerns over the storming of the Al Aqsa Mosque compound by Israel’s new extreme-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday. Countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkiye, and Pakistan have strongly condemned the provocative move by the Israeli minister.
In its statement, Qatar termed the act a flagrant violation of the international law and the Hashemite guardianship over the holy sites in Occupied Jerusalem. Doha warned against the escalation policy pursued by the Israeli government in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying compromising the religious and historic situation of Al Aqsa Mosque is not only a violation of the Palestinians, but of millions of Muslims worldwide. It urged the international community to urgently act to stop these violations.
The Cabinet, in its meeting yesterday, also denounced the Israeli minister’s storming of the courtyards of the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, calling it a dangerous escalation of the ongoing Israeli practices desecrating the holy site. This is part of Israeli attempts to Judaise Jerusalem, change its legal and historical status quo and expand settlements.
The Al Aqsa Mosque compound is administered by Jordan’s Waqf Islamic affairs council. Jordan’s foreign ministry spokesman said Amman summoned the Israeli ambassador, to protest the “recklessness of the Israeli national security minister” in storming the Al Aqsa mosque.
The provocative move came on the heels of inauguration last week of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, led by Benjamin Netanyahu. It also came aid months of increased violence and Israeli brutality against Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank.
More than 150 Palestinians and 26 Israelis were killed last year across Israel and the West Bank, including Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, according to an AFP tally, and the UN has said 2022 was the deadliest year in the West Bank since its records began in 2005. Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in the West Bank during the first three days of 2023, including a 15-year-old boy on Tuesday.
As Qatar’s Cabinet stressed yesterday, the international community must take urgent and firm action to compel Israel to stop its violations and provocations, and implement the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, before the cycle of violence spreads and hopes fade to establish a real peace that restores the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, with the establishment of their independent state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
