Jalil Mustafa & Agencies

Arab News

Israeli excavation work near an entrance to a compound in Jerusalem that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday drew Palestinian protests. Israeli police stationed reinforcements in the alleyways of Jerusalem’s walled Old City to head off feared Palestinian violence at a site at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Fatah faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement any damage to the mosque would release Palestinian militant groups from a cease-fire with Israel in the Gaza Strip they declared last November. The governing Hamas movement, which took power last March, said “any assault” on the mosque “will lead to a termination of the limited cease-fire” with Israel and would spark “a volcano of anger.”

Jordan’s King Abdallah said the work could derail the revival of Arab-Israeli peace talks. Abdallah was quoted by state news agency Petra as saying: “What Israel is doing in its practices and attacks against our sacred Muslim sites in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa is a blatant violation that is not acceptable under any pretext.”

“The monarch strongly condemns the practices and aggressions Israel is currently committing against the Islamic shrines in Jerusalem and considers them a flagrant violation (of the peace treaty) that cannot be accepted under any pretexts,” the statement from the royal court said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said before leaving for unity talks with Fatah in Makkah that Israel was out to cause “direct harm” to Al-Aqsa. “I appeal to all our Palestinian people to be united and to rise up together to protect Al-Aqsa and the holy sites on the blessed land of Palestine,” Haniyeh said.

Israel said the excavation work, some 50 meters from the existing ramp, would do no damage to Al-Aqsa or the Dome of the Rock mosque, which is also located on the hilltop compound.

An Islamic cultural organization yesterday attacked Israel’s decision. The Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), an offshoot of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) based in Rabat, called in a statement on member states to bring pressure “to put an end to these criminal acts.” It accuses Israel of “wanting to hand over part of the Jerusalem Mosque to Jewish extremists.”