Israeli Occupation Forces deny Palestinians access to Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadhan

[ 14/09/2007 - 09:19 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Reneging on earlier pledges it made to allow Palestinians in the West Bank reach and pray in the Aqsa Mosque, the Israeli occupation government sealed off roads leading to the sacred Muslim site and denied Muslims access to it.

More IOF troops and Israeli occupation police were deployed along the main roads connecting it with other West bank cities as well as at the city's main streets and road junctions.

The IOF troops also inspected all Palestinian citizens heading to the Aqsa Mosque for prayer, before allowing a small number of them to proceed to the Muslims' holy shrine.

On Thursday, the Israeli occupation government declared hermitic closure of the West Bank and the already sealed off Gaza Strip till Sunday for the Jewish New Year, thus, tightening the grip on the West Bankers further.

Local eyewitnesses affirmed to the PIC correspondent that they decided to head to the Aqsa Mosque in order to test the Israeli "promises", but hundreds of pious Palestinians were blocked by Israeli occupation soldiers manning the Kalandia checkpoint.

Tension ran high at the checkpoint as Palestinians were obviously determined to proceed and to reach the Mosque and pray in it during the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan.

PIC correspondent in the city also affirmed that although Palestinian West Bankers have difficulty in reaching the Mosque, thousands of Palestinian citizens inside the occupied city and from the 1948-occupied lands were flocking into the Mosque in clear challenge to the Israeli restrictions.

Palestinians of the 1948-occupied lands and Jerusalemites can access the Aqsa Mosque easier than Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip being holders of the Israeli citizenship.

The Israeli occupation government had been imposing more restrictions on Palestinian citizens visiting the Mosque, denying Palestinians (including Jerusalemites and inhabitants of the 1948-occupied lands) with age range between 12 and 50 years old) access to the holy shrine.

International laws and conventions sanction freedom of religion; yet, the Israeli occupation government had never submitted to those laws and statutes, and instead it strived hard to judaize the occupied city and to distort Arab and Muslim landmarks in it since the Israeli occupation of the city started in 1967.

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Note to Readers:

The Israeli settlements as well as the Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall in the Palestinian occupied territories have been built illegally on confiscated Palestinian lands. These represent a major violation of international law, Geneva Conventions, and they obstruct reaching a peaceful resolution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Israeli occupation forces abduct and kidnap Palestinians from their homes and at checkpoints, on daily basis. Most media refer to these abductions and kidnappings as arrests, which is inaccurate and not true as the Israeli occupation government has no jurisdiction over Palestinian citizens inside their own territories.

Further, when Israeli occupation forces kill Palestinian civilians, particularly when the victims are women and children, this should be referred to as an act of terrorism, and perpetrators should be described as terrorists.

Since the end of the second intifadha in 2005, not a single Israeli civilian was killed by Palestinian resistance organizations. However, Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces, almost on daily basis.

Note to Journalists:

Any journalist who does not describe this as terrorism is biased, unfair, not objective, and a participant in terrorizing the Palestinian people, so the Israeli occupation of Palestine can continue endlessly.

Note to Translators:

The Arabic definite article, Al (or its variant, El) should be written with a hyphen separating it from the noun it is associated with, for example Al-Aqsa. If a hyphen is not used, as in Al Aqsa, it confuses non-Arabic readers. They may think that it is an abbreviation of the name Albert, as many Americans do.

The Arabic definite article Al (or El) should be written as such, whether it is Shamsiyah or Qamariyah in pronunciation, simply because we are dealing with the written form of the language, not the spoken one. Using the Shamsiyah so many forms in writing is inaccurate and confusing to non-Arabic readers, to say the least.

Only standard (fasih) pronunciation of Arabic names should be used. Non-standard ('ammi)  should be avoided avoided. Example: Names like Abu Sunainah, Abu Rudainah, and Abu Shebak are written by some translators in the non-standard forms of Abu Snainah, Abu Rdainah, and Abu Shbak.

The standard pronunciation of the vowel at the end of names is (a), not (e), particularly if it is followed by (h), like in the cases of Haniyah and Rudainah, not Haniyeh and Rudaineh.

The standard pronunciation of vowels in the following names is (ai), not (ei) as written by  some translators: Hussain, not Hussein and Hassanain, not Hassanein. This is the same long vowel pronounced in the English words "rain" and "brain."

 

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