Palestinians desecrated the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, during the holy month of Ramadan this week by stockpiling weapons they intended to use to attack Jews praying at the Western Wall on Passover.
The site, known as Haram a-Sharif to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Christians and Jews, is the holiest site in Judaism, as the location of the first and second Holy Temples, faced by Jews worldwide in daily prayer.
Despite repeated — and false — claims that Israeli troops have attacked the mosque, it has been protected by Israel since it captured the site in a defensive war in 1967, allowing Muslim authorities to maintain control.
The mosque was a flashpoint in 2021, when Palestinians used the mosque as a base for attacks, causing clashes with Israeli troops, triggering a war with the Palestinian terror group Hamas, and inciting Arab Israelis to riot.
On this occasion, the methods were similar. While most Palestinians who worshipped at the mosque did so in peace, others prepared an attack, using the elevation of the mosque to attack Jews praying at the wall below.
The Times of Israel reported:
Police said they entered the mosque after masked youths barricaded themselves inside the mosque atop the Temple Mount with fireworks, clubs and rocks and refused to come out peacefully. Cops apparently believed the group intended to assault Jews visiting the mount on Passover Eve.
…
In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was committed to “maintaining the status quo and calming tensions” on the Temple Mount.
Netanyahu claimed that Muslim worshipers inside the mosque overnight Tuesday confirmed the police account of events, publishing footage to his Twitter page in which an unidentified Palestinian man testified that masked youths barricaded the doors to the mosque shut, and refused to let anyone leave the building.
Netanyahu tweeted:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
"Israel is acting to maintain the status quo and calm the situation on the Temple Mount. pic.twitter.com/xgTxbK0vRt
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 5, 2023
The flareup is causing tensions within the Arab world, and the Arab League is meeting for an emergency session on Wednesday. Several rockets have also been fired toward Israel from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Photo: file
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