OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Hamas has condemned the Israeli occupation authorities’ decisions to ban several imams and preachers of Al-Aqsa Mosque from the compound, describing the move as a renewed act of aggression against the holy site and its religious leadership.
Haroun Nasser al-Din, a member of Hamas’s political bureau and head of its Jerusalem affairs office, said on Wednesday that the expulsion orders, issued for varying periods, constitute what he called a blatant violation of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque and its Islamic and civilizational role.
He argued that targeting religious scholars, imams and preachers through bans, arrests and restrictions is intended to silence voices defending the Islamic identity of Al-Aqsa and to empty the Mosque of its religious and community leadership.
According to Nasser al-Din, such measures aim to facilitate what he described as Israeli plans to Judaize the site and impose temporal and spatial divisions.
“The policy of expulsion will not deter our people in Jerusalem from maintaining their presence at Al-Aqsa,” Nasser al-Din said in a statement.
“It will only strengthen their resolve to uphold their exclusive right to it. The imams and scholars will remain beacons of truth, and Israeli decisions will neither strip them of their standing nor erase their role in guiding the public to defend the first qibla,” he added.
He warned Israeli leaders against continuing actions targeting Al-Aqsa, its worshippers and its scholars, saying that attempts to alter the identity of Jerusalem and its holy sites would face resistance from Palestinians.
Nasser al-Din called on Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem and inside 1948 occupied Palestine, as well as those able to reach the city from the West Bank, to increase their presence at Al-Aqsa Mosque and rally around religious leaders in defiance of such “unjust expulsion orders.”
He also urged Arab and Muslim governments and peoples, along with international human rights organizations, to take urgent action to halt Israeli measures at the Mosque, expose what he termed violations against religious figures, and provide support to strengthen the resilience of Jerusalem residents.
