Palestinian political and religious leaders have issued a stern warning to Israel against “tampering with the status quo at the Haram Al-Sharif [Noble Sanctuary] in East Jerusalem,” saying incessant Israeli efforts to arrogate “prayer rights” for Jews at the exclusively Islamic shrine would cause a huge conflagration in the region and beyond. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said Israeli provocations and violations of the mosque's sanctity were “totally unacceptable and could transform the region into a powder keg”. The warnings came following statements by Israeli officials, including parliamentary leaders, asserting efforts to promulgate laws allowing Jews to “have full freedom” to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque and its spacious courts and esplanades. Sheikh Mohamed Hussein, the grand mufti or supreme religious authority of Jerusalem, said Israeli plans and designs would create a tinderbox in Jerusalem and the rest of occupied Palestine. “Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere will never accept this provocation and will try to thwart it by all means necessary. This is the ultimate red line for us. The Israelis and the world should listen carefully to what I am saying,” he said. Hussein was briefly detained by the Israeli occupation authorities last week after he reiterated these warnings publicly. Palestinian leaders are convinced that according to Jews prayer rights at Al-Aqsa Mosque would be a “preparatory step” towards the usurpation and partitioning of the Islamic sanctuary. Palestinians point out that there is a precedent whereby Israel transformed a mosque into a synagogue. In the early 1970s, Israel allowed Jews to pray at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and a few months later embarked on partitioning the Muslim shrine of 1400 years into a mosque and a synagogue. In 1994, a Jewish settler stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque as Muslims were praying at dawn, killing 29 worshipers and wounding dozens. Ahmed Qurei, a prominent Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) figure and former prime minister of the PA warned that any tinkering on Israel's part with the status quo at the Haram Al-Sharif would be a game-changer and might well tear all peace efforts to smithereens. “It could spark off the mother of all Intifadas, which even the PA with all its security agencies won't be able to put down. I can't think of any other issue or any other cause with the potential of galvanising and electrifying people's emotions. I could compare what the Israelis are trying to do at Al-Aqsa Mosque with an attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca,” he said. Last week, the speaker of the Israeli Knesset Yuli Adelstein said he was confident the Israeli High Court would pass a law allowing Jews to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque by next year. Other Israeli parliamentary leaders and Knesset members made similar statements, which Palestinian and Muslim leaders viewed as “a de facto declaration of war on Arab existence” in occupied Palestine. Palestinian leaders appealed to the Arab League and Jordan to exert pressure on Israel to reconsider its plans to that effect. According to the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty of 1994, the Hashemite Kingdom is entrusted with administrative responsibility over Islamic shrines in Jerusalem. However, in recent years, and with the rise of right wing and fascist Jewish parties in Israel, Israeli governments sought to slowly but definitively limit the Jordanian role by moving to impose so-called Israeli sovereignty over the area, which Jews call the Temple Mount. Palestinian officials are also warning that Israel is trying to desensitise Arab and Muslim rejection of Israel's Judaising efforts in Jerusalem. The same officials warn that no peace efforts or peace agreement would survive any provocative Israeli measure, such as allowing Jews to pray at the Muslim sanctuary. Nonetheless, these warnings have fallen on deaf ears in Israel as the Israeli government seems hell-bent on changing the rules of the game at Haram Al-Sharif. Last week, dozens of Jewish settlers were allowed to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The millenarian settlers were escorted by heavily armed Israeli soldiers. The settlers, who shouted anti-Islam and anti-Arab slogans, attacked Palestinian worshipers. When the Palestinians sought to defend themselves, the soldiers joined the settlers in beating the Palestinians. The issue of East Jerusalem, especially Haram Al-Sharif, is considered one of the most difficult — if not the most difficult — issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict, owing to its religious and emotional dimension. Israel occupied the city from Jordan in 1967, but since then has carried out intensive and far-reaching changes to the landscape, including building numerous Jewish settlements and bringing in hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers to live in the occupied town. Israel, which annexed the city soon after the outset of the occupation, insists that East Jerusalem is an integral part of its “eternal and undivided” capital. However, Palestinians and the rest of the Arab-Muslim world vehemently reject the Israeli fait accompli, insisting that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future Palestinian state. Talmudic-minded Jews, who more or less control the political map in Israel, believe that Islamic and Christian holy places in Jerusalem must be destroyed in order to enable the establishment of a Jewish “Second Temple”, which would herald the appearance of the Jewish Messiah or Redeemer, who would rule the entire world from Jerusalem.
PALESTINIAN TALKS IN CAIRO: Meanwhile, reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas resumed in Cairo this week under Egyptian mediation. A Fatah official said the two sides would discuss the formation of a unity government that would be mutually acceptable for both Hamas and Fatah. Last year, Hamas and Fatah reached an agreement in Doha to form that type of government, to be headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. However, the agreement has never been implemented due to rampant mistrust between the two sides. According to sources in Hamas, Fatah continues to harbour behind-the-scenes intentions to end Hamas's rule in Gaza, probably with American and Israeli help. One of the most contentious issues impeding genuine reconciliation between the two sides is the proposal to organise elections in the West Bank. Israel says it won't allow Hamas to take part in any legislative elections, warning that it would arrest Islamist candidates. Fatah says it can't do anything about the “dominant Israeli factor,” noting that Fatah itself as well as the entire Palestinian Authority are under full Israeli occupation. Hamas believes that elections in such conditions, whereby Israel plays the determining role and has the final say, are not worth contesting. Contention between Fatah and Hamas escalated last week when PA and Fatah leaders denounced Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi's visit to Gaza. The Egyptian-born and Qatar-based head of the International Union of Muslim Religious Scholars was accorded a warm welcome by Islamist authorities of the Gaza Strip. During his visit, Al-Qaradawi reasserted Islamist rejection of Israel and refusal to recognise the Jewish state. Fatah condemned the highly publicised visit, arguing it would “legitimise” Hamas rule over the strip. Fatah insists that the PLO, not Hamas, is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied Palestinian territories, triggering the current rift between Fatah and Hamas.
