The Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem encompasses several key sites central to Islam, including the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site for Muslims, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have ascended to heaven, where he spoke to God.
The compound sits on the Temple Mount, where the ancient Hebrew temple once stood.
As readers of our site and listeners to this podcast are surely aware, the Israeli government carried out several raids of the Al Aqsa compound in the last few weeks, leaving one Palestinian dead and hundreds injured and arrested.
The Zionist propaganda machine has been working overtime to paint Palestinians as poor caretakers of these sacred spaces, claiming that children playing soccer, or the very presence of fireworks prove that they don’t deserve to be there in the first place.
Yumna Patel, our Palestine News Director, leads the discussion with Mariam Barghouti in the West Bank, Tareq Hajjaj in Gaza, and myself.
On Wednesday evening , the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was full of Muslim worshipers praying into the night during the holy month of Ramadan. Earlier that morning, worshipers were beaten, and forced out of the holy mosque’s prayer halls.
In the midst of night prayers Wednesday, Israeli forces stormed the compound again with weapons and riot gear, unleashing a coordinated and organized attack against worshipers for the second time in less than 24 hours.
As Israeli Jewish settlers rally for holding Passover animal sacrifices in the mosque’s compound, Muslim worshipers continue to be attacked with teargas, beatings, and extended imprisonment in some of Israel’s most notorious interrogation cells in Jerusalem.
Palestinian worshipers were attacked inside the compound and the Qibli Mosque, where worshipers pray through the night during the holy month of Ramadan.
Images filmed by worshipers inside the compound and the mosque show Israeli forces firing teargas, beating worshipers, and invading a holy space with weapons.
According to eye-witnesses and the Red Crescent in Jerusalem, Israeli forces fired stun grenades, teargas, and rubber bullets at worshipers.
Israeli forces arrested more than 440 Palestinians, most of them Jerusalem residents or holding Israeli citizenship, according to Mohammad Mahmoud, a lawyer from the Wadi Hilweh Information Center.
More than 65 of those detained were male children and minors. 379 of the arrested were released on the condition that they would be banished from both the Old City and the al-Aqsa compound for a period that would be later determined by Israeli courts.
Almost 47 Palestinians with West Bank ID’s had their detention extended to Friday, April 7, where they will have a court hearing in Ofer Military Court. After sunrise, Israeli forces raided the compound again, and were filmed pushing worshipers whilst in prayer.
Since the nineteenth century, a status quo agreement recognizes the administrative authority of the holy space as the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, which is under the custodianship of Jordan.
A decades-long peace treaty signed between Israel and Jordan recognizes the latter’s custodianship of the site, and allows for non-Muslim visitation, but no non-Muslim worship.
The Egyptian foreign ministry also released statements condemning the assault on Jerusalem and the worshipers noting Egypt holds Israel, the acting authority of the occupation, responsible for this dangerous escalation, which serves to curb the efforts of peace.
Mondoweiss / ABC Flash Point News 2023.
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