PA Threatens Purim Holy War On Temple Mount

PA THREATENS PURIM HOLY-WAR ON TEMPLE MOUNT

ADAM ELIYAHU BERKOWITZ

WAFA News reported on Saturday that Mahmoud al-Habbash, the Palestinian Authority’s top Islamic judge and presidential adviser on religious affairs, called on all Palestinians to protect the Temple Mount against “Temple groups” who  he claims plan on “storming the Aqsa Mosque” on Thursday, the Jewish holiday of Purim. 

Al-Habbash warned that “terrorist groups and settler gangs are taking advantage of Jewish religious occasions to storm the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and try to impose a fait accompli as part of the Judaization schemes that target the Holy City in general and the Temple Mount in particular.”

“It is purely Islamic, and non-Muslims have no right to it, as stated in the Noble Qur’an and confirmed by international laws and UNESCO resolution,” a-Habbash said.

He called on Palestinian leaders “to send a clear message to the world that violating Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa is a violation of the faith of more than a billion and a half Muslims in all parts of the earth, and that the occupation seeks to ignite a religious war that will burn the whole world with its fire, and no one on the face of the earth will be spared from it or its consequence.”

It should be noted that the Muslim month of Ramadan begins on April 2, less than three weeks. The period of Ramadan is frequently a time of increased Islamic violence. 

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, also called on Palestinians to arrive at the mosque “to confront the calls launched by extremist settler groups to storm it during the Jewish holiday of Purim” later this week.

PA Minister of Religious Affairs Hatem al-Bakri issued a similar warning.

“The escalating and dangerous Israeli plans against Jerusalem, represented by ongoing attempts to interfere in the affairs of the Haram al-Sharif [Noble Sanctuary], intensive excavations under al-Aqsa Mosque, settlement projects and the daily incursions, are nothing but an attempt to change the status quo,” he said.

“The continuation of these crimes and provocative calls [by Jews to visit the Temple Mount] obliges the world to stand up to its responsibilities and to seriously intervene to put an end to these violations,” Bakri said. 

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