Hamas warns of dividing, internationalizing the Aqsa

[ 29/08/2009 - 08:47 AM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)--

The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, warned of attempts to divide the holy Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews and to internationalize the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Hamas in a statement on Friday declared absolute rejection of the American idea of turning Jerusalem into an open city for all religions, calling on the world community not to legitimize such a "serious plot".

It also refused the Israeli plan of converting the control over Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Jordanian endowment department to the Israeli archeology department.

Hamas asked former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas not to provide political cover for the Israeli measures against the holy city and to halt all public and covert negotiations and security coordination with the Israeli occupation authority (IOA).

It warned that the judaization schemes against Jerusalem had reached an unprecedented stage as more excavations were being carried out under the Aqsa and in its vicinity other than the confiscation of lands around the Mosque in a bid to impose Jewish presence and to bolster IOA security control.

For its part, the international Quds institution charged in a press conference on Thursday that the IOA attacks on the holy site had increased four folds compared to last year.

It said that the IOA started five new excavations under the holy site in 2009 bringing the number of excavations under and around the site to 25 while the storming operations reached 43 including one by the Israeli internal security minister, the highest ranking official figure to storm the site since its occupation in 1967.

The institution warned that dividing the holy Aqsa Mosque was only waiting for the opportune moment to impose it.

Abu Sha'ar: Allocate Friday sermons to Al-Aqsa Mosque

[ 29/08/2009 - 09:11 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The PA Awkaf (endowment) minister in Gaza Dr. Talib Abu Sha'ar has called on Muslim preachers in occupied Palestine and the Arab and Muslim world to dedicate the Friday sermon to expose the Israeli practices against the holy Aqsa Mosque and the occupied city of Jerusalem.

In a written statement, Abu Sha'ar deprecated the snowballing Israeli aggressions on the sanctity of the holy mosque, including the serious underground excavations the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) was and still is carrying out near the Mosque.

He, however, stressed the important role of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and those living in the 1948-occupied Palestinian lands in defending the holy shrine, and hailed their insistence to head to and pray in the Mosque despite the IOA restrictions.

He also invited the Arab and Muslim leaders to take decisive and clear-cut stands to compel the IOA into changing its racist polices in the occupied Palestinian land, especially in Jerusalem.

The frequency of the Israeli atrocities against the Aqsa Mosque had rapidly increased recently, especially after the IOA rejected international calls to halt construction of settlements in the occupied city of Jerusalem and in the West Bank.

Hebrew report: Israel built 150 housing units in eastern Jerusalem in six months

[ 29/08/2009 - 10:27 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

An Israeli organization monitoring the illegal Israeli settlement activities in occupied Eeastern Jerusalem has revealed that the Israeli occupation government (IOG) had built at least 150 housing units in occupied Jerusalem, particularly in the Old City.

Ir Amim, an Israeli organization founded in 2004 to promote Israeli-Palestinian co-existence, reported that around 750 Israeli settlers have inhabited those units. More than 2000 others have already settled in the heart of the Arab suburbs, it added.

The organization revealed that more housing units were planned in the Palestinian suburbs of Ras Al-Amod, Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, accusing two fanatic Jewish groups of coordinating the construction plan with the IOA.

Furthermore, the organization said that the exposed construction schemes in Jerusalem coupled with the increased Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in the area were meant to expand the Israeli presence in the occupied city.

The revelation of the schemes comes after Hebrew media sources confirmed that Washington retracted its request for freezing the Israeli activity in the occupied city of Jerusalem after it agreed to an Israeli suggestion of temporarily freezing settlement construction in the West Bank but not in Jerusalem.