Hundreds of Egyptian students Monday protested for the second consecutive day at Cairo, Al-Azhar and Zagazig universities against Israel's raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the inclusion of two Muslim sites in a list of Jewish heritage sites. Students at Cairo University, Egypt's biggest public university, began their protest on the campus' main gates, triggering clashes with the security guards who surrounded the protesters on Sunday. However, Monday things were calmer as the students were satisfied with shouting anti-Israel slogans. "Wake up, Arabs. Israel is stealing Al-Aqsa," read a huge banner held by several male and female students. The students also shouted slogans calling on Arab leaders to take action against the Israeli practices. Israel's decision last week to add the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and the Bilal Mosque in Bethlehem in the West Bank drew widespread criticism and heightened Palestinian suspicions of the Jewish state at a time when the US is trying to restart peace talks. Students at Al-Azhar University, Egypt's prestigious Muslim seminary, also marched on the campus, chanting slogans condemning the Israeli occupation. The protest ended with a conference held outside the Faculty of Arabic Language, in which the students called on Egyptian Government to stop gas exports to Israel. Islamist students at Zagazig University in the Nile Delta also organised a series of protests. They chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation, saying, "No to Judaizing Al-Aqsa". Al-Aqsa Mosque is Islam's third holiest site. Egypt condemned the Israeli plan to include the two holy places in its list of national heritage sites, saying it undermined peace efforts. "The decision is illegal," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement. "This new Israeli position will feed extremism, confrontations and violence, and it does not serve US efforts to revive peace," he said. Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1979. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is due to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh Tuesday. In Hebron, the Palestinian Cabinet moved its weekly meeting to Hebron Monday, in a symbolic protest against Israel's decision. Israelis and Palestinians have clashed frequently in the past over two West Bank shrines added to the heritage list. "The meeting today is to express that the Cabinet fully stands, solid, against these Israeli measures," said Palestinian Planning Minister Mohamed Ishtayeh. The disputed shrine in Hebron is a 2,000-year-old fortress-like structure built where tradition says Abraham and other biblical patriarchs are buried. Muslims call it the Ibrahimi Mosque. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Israel's move as an "attack on the holy places", and his Islamic Hamas rivals in Gaza called for a new uprising. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the decision was not about politics, but preserving culture. Over the past week, Palestinian stone-throwers have clashed almost daily with Israeli troops in Hebron, a divided city where 500 Jewish settlers live amid 170,000 Palestinians. King Abdullah II of Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, and the head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), likewise warned of dangerous repercussions. "Israel's provocative aggressions on Al-Aqsa would have dangerous repercussions" and could threaten regional peace efforts, the king said. Shmuel Rabinovitch, the rabbi for the Western Wall, a Jewish pilgrimage site adjacent to the site, yesterday sought to defuse tensions by reminding Jews that they are forbidden from entering the site for religious reasons. "The Halacha (Jewish religious law) forbids Jews from entering the Temple Mount. There is no reason to fear that Jews will enter, not only for political and security reasons, but for religious reasons," he told military radio.
