Cairo, August 13 (QNA) - The General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, through its Palestine and Occupied Arab Territories Sector, strongly condemned on Thursday the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by hundreds of Israeli settlers under the protection of Israeli occupation police.
The Secretariat also denounced the performance of Talmudic rituals and prayers in the mosque's courtyards, describing the move as a dangerous escalation aimed at imposing a new reality at the site and altering its historical and legal status quo.
According to information received by the League from the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem, 584 settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the morning through Mughrabi Gate under police protection. The settlers also performed collective Talmudic rituals in the mosque's courtyards, in what the League described as a flagrant violation of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, international law, and international legitimacy resolutions.
The Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs warned of the dangers posed by the continued Israeli practices, which directly undermine the historical and legal status quo of Al-Aqsa Mosque and represent a systematic attempt to impose a temporal and spatial division of the site. The Ministry cautioned that this poses a serious threat to freedom of worship as well as regional peace and security.
The Ministry stressed that the entire 144-dunam area of Al-Aqsa Mosque is exclusively a place of worship for Muslims and that the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department is the sole authority responsible for administering its affairs in accordance with the existing historical and legal status quo.
It also held Israel, as the occupying power, fully responsible for the repeated violations and called for an immediate end to all incursions, provocations, and practices aimed at altering the identity and historical and legal status of Al-Aqsa Mosque. It further urged Israel to respect international law, international humanitarian law, and relevant United Nations resolutions.
The Arab League, for its part, called on the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, to assume its responsibilities in stopping the escalating Israeli violations, protecting the Palestinian people and their holy sites, and preventing impunity or the imposition of a fait accompli by force.
The League reiterated its firm position that East Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Palestine, and that all Israeli measures aimed at changing the city's status, identity, and Arab, Islamic, and Christian character are null and void and illegitimate, and create no legal right or effect.
The Arab League further warned that continued escalation at Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Islamic and Christian holy sites in occupied Jerusalem provokes the feelings of hundreds of millions of Arabs, Muslims, and Christians, threatens to trigger further conflict, and undermines prospects for peace and stability in the region. (QNA)