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Palestinian Muslims in
Jerusalem and its vicinity in Palestine are keen, from times
immemorial, to pray
regularly and en mass, especially in Fridays and the fasting month
of
Ramadan, in Haram al-Sharif
(Noble Sanctuary) in the old city of Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa
Mosque and the Dome of
the Rock are situated. The centuries-old Muslim ritual has
signaled always Muslim’s
adherence and commitment to Jerusalem as a precious holy
Muslim Arab land.
Prophet Muhammad himself urged Muslims in a strong language to pray
in Al-Aqsa Mosque
noting that every prostration (bow) in a prayer is blessed five
hundred
folds its like in other
place. The Prophet instructed believers in Islam to set out only to
three
Mosques, Al-Aqsa was
one of them. The high esteem Jerusalem has enjoyed among all
faithful believers in
Islam stemmed also from the Prophet’s miraculous Isra’a (journey)
to
Al-Aqsa Mosque and his
ascension to heaven mounting Al-Buraq Horse. Moreover,
Muslims, in the early
days of Islam, turned in prayer toward Jerusalem.
Before Jewish occupation
of 78 per cent of Arab Palestine in 1948, Jerusalem was an
open city for believers
in the three monolithic religions. In 1967, the new Jewish state,
Israel,
was able to occupy the
rest of historic Palestine including East Jerusalem. History of Arab
Jerusalem has fallen a
prey to the designs of the new invaders and every thing including
Muslim rituals came
under bizarre Jewish harassment. Fanatic Jewish groups’ calls for
demolishing Haram al-Sharif
and rebuilding the third Temple began taking serious
dimensions with the
helping hand Sharon’s government is giving to extremist Jews such as
the Faithfuls of the
Temple’s group who attempts every year and in the anniversary of
the
second Temple’s
destruction, on the hands of the Romans, to lay the foundation of
the third
Temple inside Al-Haram
courtyards. Sharon promised these groups that he when leave
office he will leave
behind him something memorable. No one knows what is in Sharon’s
mind other than his
friend Bush who provides American cover to occupation.
Under Sharon’s rightist
government Israeli police take over Haram al-Sharif every Friday
preventing Palestinians,
sometimes because they are not holders of Israeli Ids
And sometimes because
they are not above forty or fifty years age group, depending on
the wording of that
Friday’s military order and the security situation in Jerusalem.
Accordingly, the Israeli
police decide the number of Palestinians who are allowed in
Al-Haram. During the
present Palestinian uprising the police fired in many occasions
unexpectedly, live
ammunition or rubber coated bullets at bowing worshippers inflicting
scores of casualties
among them. One of these deliberate shootings and killing which
triggered the second Intifadah, happened in September 28, 2000, in the aftermath of
Sharon provocative
visit of Al-Haram, a step approved by former prime minister, Gen.
Ehud Barak, in face of
all sincere Palestinian and European appeals not to grant permission
to a visitor whose hands are tainted by thousands of Palestinians.
Four years earlier,
other Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, more than ninety
Palestinians were shot
to death when they demonstrated the opening of the tunnel under
Al-Aqsa Mosque. And the
series of the Israeli occupation is still going on waiting for
another sequel or
massacre.
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