Al-Aqsa Mosque’s Displaced Worshippers

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/openzion.html

Last night, a march of extremist Israeli settlers took over the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, filling the streets with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers enforcing a strictly “Jews only” policy on the streets of the Muslim Quarter that put the nearly 30,000 Palestinian residents of the Muslim Quarter under military curfew until the march was over.

This follows a week of attacks of this nature on Al-Aqsa Mosque—better known to many as the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy site in Islam and the iconic golden crowning glory of Jerusalem. Under normal circumstances, though anyone can enter the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, only practicing Muslims are allowed to enter the inside of Al-Aqsa Mosque. However, in recent years extremist Israeli settlers—protected by IDF soldiers or Israeli police—have stormed the mosque, claiming that it should be destroyed so that the Third Temple can be erected in its place.
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The most recent string of attacks started on Sunday when an Israeli soldier threw a young Muslim Palestinian woman’s Qu’ran on the floor, trampling it until it was destroyed. A few days later on Wednesday, eight Israeli settlers accompanied by soldiers stormed the mosque, interrupting the worshippers during prayers and violently ripping off a woman’s hijab—a traditional head covering required for worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

It appears that there is more to the story than just Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, and that it was possibly justified by all the provocations of the IDF and crazy illegal settlers causing mayhem.

[affinity292]

1. The truth will set you free

If the information in the article you clipped were correct, you would be right.
But, it is false.

For example, No Soldier threw a Koran down and trampled it.
If you search you can find video footage of what has been going on at Al Aqsa.
Some Jews were walking around on the Mount (Not in the Mosque) with a tour guide.
A group of Arab women attacked them and tried to force them to leave.
Some police/IDF moved in between them and asked the women to stop harassing the tourists.
One of the women dropped a Koran.
No one threw it .
No one trampled it.
And if you check the news stories over time, the earlier ones tend to get it right.
And over time, like a terrible game of telephone or whisper down the lane, the "story" has been embellished more and more.

If you google it, there is quite a bit of photographic and video evidence that over the last several weeks, groups of
tourists and Jews walking around the Mount and doing nothing are being described in Arab press as "storming the mount" and
conducting rituals."

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/

in their archives have a number of the Arab news stories side by side with the photos and video of the events allegedly being described and they just don't add up.

The IDF don't let ANYONE storm the mosque.
Are there ANY settlers who say the Mosque should be destroyed?
Sadly, yes.
And the IDF don't let them anywhere near it.
In fact the Israeli govt refuses them permits to even parade in the city of Jerusalem and often puts out
restraining orders banning specific settlers from even visiting the area.

The PA has also declared that the entire city of Jerusalem is holy to Muslims and Christians only and not Jews and therefore
Jews should be/ can be banned from not only owning any property there but of even visiting any of Jerusalem.

Peace.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

2. More from the article.

Many reports claim that these violent attacks are in response to Palestinian tensions surrounding President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Israel. However, according to residents of Jerusalem—both in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and in the surrounding Arab neighborhoods—these attacks are routine.

“The settlers and soldiers are trying to turn Al Aqsa into the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron,” Saleh, a Palestinian activist living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem who prefers not to publish his last name, told me.

Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque was once (and still is) one of the most important religious sites in Islam. However, since the Baruch Goldstein massacre in 1994, when the radical right-wing Israeli settler opened fire inside the mosque, killing 29 Palestinians, the mosque has been divided in two. One side is a mosque, the other a synagogue. Although this creates the illusion of co-existence between the Muslims and Jews of Hebron—an important city for both religions—this is not the case. Even though the massacre was perpetrated by an Israeli settler, it was the Palestinians who suffered the consequences, the most renown of which was the closure of Shuhada Street—the main artery through Hebron—to all Palestinian foot traffic.

welcome to DU.

[affinity292]

3. Thank you

Thank you for the welcome.

I don't know what "attacks" you (they) are referring to.

Sadly, I have little doubt that there are attacks (on both sides) regularly.

Jerusalem Arabs regularly firebomb and engage in arson and brick attacks against Jerusalem Jews.

And I have no doubt there are attacks on Jerusalem Arabs, Also wrong, and a crime.

As I said, my googling of the news does not support the claims made the person about anyone storming the Temple Mount.

As an aside, I find it ironic that the person quoted above is alleging that Jews want to make Jerusalem another Hebron.

Hebron is also a holy site to Jews, who were ethnically cleansed from Hebron and banned from access (in 1929 and lasting until 1967) just as Jerusalem Jews were ethnically cleansed from Jerusalem, denied access to their holy sites, and their holy places destroyed from 1948 to 1967.

One thing I hope you and I can agree on: I hope we both see peace and an independent Palestinian State alongside Israel, both living peacefully and well.

Salaam.

[In_The_Wind]

8. Hello ~ affinity292. Thank you for joining DU.

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In The Wind
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[oberliner]

4. It is also the site of the Temple Mount

One of the holiest sites in Judaism, for what that is worth.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. How often are muslims, backed by the IDF, allowed to accost the worshipers there?

[Shaktimaan]

6. Not a good example

If you're trying to prove Jewish apartheid against Arabs. Though the mosque is under Israeli sovereignty, control it has been delegated to the Muslim waqf. While non-Muslims are allowed to tour the outside during specific hours, Jews are forbidden from praying there. The only group that can ever access the place without restrictions are Muslims.

Al Aqaba is an example of how Israel grants all religions access to their religious sites despite resistance to such policies by the religious right political factions.

[Shaktimaan]

7. Worshippers where?

At the Temple Mount?

Wow, you haven't bothered to learn an iota of information about this at all, have you?

Jews are FORBIDDEN from worshipping at the Temple Mount as the whole structure is under Muslim control. There are no "worshippers" there who aren't Muslim.

[oberliner]

9. Jews aren't allowed there

So there aren't any Jewish worshipers for Muslims to accost.