The visit of Egypt's Ali Gomaa to Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem unleashed a firestorm of criticism among Palestinians, writes Saleh Al-Naami Amr, a 38-year-old teacher who lives in southern Ramallah, was furious when he heard that Israel allowed Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa and Yemeni preacher Ali Al-Jafri to visit Jerusalem and pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Amr, who lives less than 20 kilometres from Jerusalem, has been banned from entering Jerusalem and praying at Al-Aqsa for the past 20 years because Israeli occupation authorities do not allow Palestinians below the age of 45 to enter Jerusalem and pray at Al-Aqsa. Amr believes that the only reason why Israel allowed Egypt's Grand Mufti to pray at Al-Aqsa is because this serves the normalisation of relations with the occupation state. Some of Amr's friends and acquaintances pray at Al-Aqsa by crossing perilous mountain paths to avoid Israeli military barricades that pepper the roads leading to Jerusalem, which prevents Palestinians from reaching the Holy City since the first Intifada at the end of 1987. Going on the mountain paths is very risky because Israeli security forces are under orders to fire at anyone trying to reach the city via these routes. Over nearly a quarter of a century, many Palestinians were injured while attempting to enter Jerusalem to pray at Al-Aqsa. An imam at one of the mosques in the Gaza Strip spoke about the Egyptian Grand Mufti's visit in his Friday sermon: "Israel allowed them to go to Al-Aqsa because this serves normalising relations, and in order for Arabs and Muslims to become used to the idea of visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque under occupation and Israeli sovereignty there. This must be rejected and condemned." While Palestinians were protesting against Gomaa's trip to Al-Aqsa, the extremist Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, went out of his way to welcome the visit. Barkat had said during his campaign for mayor that his primary goal is to the complete Judaisation of the Holy City, including imposing "Jewish sovereignty" over Al-Aqsa Mosque. His enthusiasm about Gomaa's visit is rooted in his belief that such visits contribute to achieving this goal. Barkat, who usually criticises Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and demands more hard-line policies on Jerusalem by the ruling right-wing coalition government, not only welcomed the visit of the Muslim clerics to Al-Aqsa but also declared that he will invite a large number of Muslim clerics from the Arab and Muslim worlds to visit Jerusalem and pray at Al-Aqsa. Barkat offered "incentives" to Muslim clerics by offering to host them in "the most luxurious" hotels in occupied Jerusalem and arrange meetings for them with senior Jewish rabbis. Barkat explained to Israeli Radio that such steps are much more valuable than all the propaganda campaigns by consecutive Israeli government since 1967 to persuade the world to view Israeli control of Arab territories that were occupied during the Six Day War, including Jerusalem, as legitimate. As Gomaa and Al-Jafri continue to defend their controversial trip, Barkat swears that such visits persuade Arab and Muslim masses to accept Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa. Therefore, he is determined to invite more Muslim clerics. Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom concurred and described the visit by the two clerics as a great achievement for Israel, emphasising that the Israeli government should continue finding "creative" ways to encourage more Muslim clerics to visit Jerusalem and pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Jordanian Royal Court had a direct role in organising Gomaa's and Al-Jafri's trip to Al-Aqsa Mosque, since both visitors were chaperoned by King Abdullah's personal adviser during their visit to the mosque. Further evidence that Jordan officially supports visits by Muslim clerics to Al-Aqsa Mosque while under occupation is that Jordan's minister of interior, Mohamed Al-Raoud, also visited the mosque after the two clerics were there, amidst a media blitz. While Gomaa and Al-Jafri claimed that their visits were not coordinated with the Israeli authorities, Tel Aviv deliberately embarrassed them when Israeli Radio quoted sources in Israel's Defense Ministry as saying that the two visits were entirely coordinated with the Israeli military, and were heavily guarded by Israeli security. The great service by Jordan to Israel of organising the two trips is reflected in how much praise Israeli officials showered on the Jordanian regime. On the Palestinian front, some viewed Jordan's role in organising the trips as part of Amman's general outlook of staging the issue of Jerusalem as if it were a religious one, minimising the political aspects by only focusing on freedom of worship in Jerusalem and ignoring the occupation. On the other hand, Jordan does nothing about Israeli policies that deny rights of worship to Palestinians. Amman has never objected to Israel banning Palestinians from reaching Al-Aqsa and praying there. As debate on this issue peaked in the Arab world, especially in Egypt, Israel took steps that could only embarrass Gomaa and those who defend his trip. The day Gomaa left Jerusalem, Israeli Interior Minister Rabbi Eli Yishai issued a ban on the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque and former Palestinian Mufti Sheikh Akrama Sabri entering Al-Aqsa, under the pretext that his presence in the mosque threatens public security and order, though he is over 70 years old. The next day, Yishai renewed the ban against Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, on entering Al-Aqsa. The bans against the two sheikhs were not unusual. For more than two decades, has banned many Palestinian clerics from reaching Al-Aqsa because they voice their rejection of Israel's continued occupation of the city. It banned Sheikh Al-Hamed Al-Bitawi, MP and preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque and chairman of the Association of Palestinian Scholars, from going to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa and prevented him from entering the city although he was in poor health and later died. The Palestinian Authority (PA) and its spokesmen defended Gomaa and Al-Jafri, while the minister of religious endowments in the Ramallah government, Mahmoud Al-Habash, quickly condemned the fatwa (religious edict) by Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, chairman of the World Association of Muslim Scholars, which prohibits Muslims from visiting Jerusalem under occupation. Al-Habash wrote: "The prohibition fatwa by Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi about visiting occupied Jerusalem has nothing to do with religion or politics." He claimed that Al-Qaradawi's edict "is a fatwa that contradicts the Prophet's teachings and consensus among the [Muslim] nation's jurists and scholars." Meanwhile, all Palestinian factions except Fatah denounced any visits by Muslim clerics from outside Palestine to Al-Aqsa Mosque. Hamas demanded the visits cease immediately since they represent "a form of normalisation with Israeli occupation". Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zohra said: "Visits by any Arab official, religious scholar or intellectual to Jerusalem under occupation contributes to the normalisation process with the Zionist occupation, and gives the occupation an opportunity to improve their image in front of public opinion." Abu Zohra described the visits as mistakes "because they are subject to Zionist coordination, even if visitors claim the contrary," and that the priority now is to prevent these visits and exert all efforts to liberate Jerusalem from occupation. The arguments of those defending the visits are undermined by the enthusiasm of the extremist Jewish right-wing for them, and as Judaisation policies by Israel continue to violate the Holy City.
