OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Likud ministers and Knesset members have called for escalating incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque during their participation in a conference organized by the so-called Temple Mount Administration in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that the conference was also held to mark what was described as “a decade of positive transformation” in the Mosque and 59 years since its occupation.
The newspaper quoted Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi as saying that Al-Aqsa Mosque must be closed to Arabs, “until we reach the only acceptable status quo here, which is that Jews reach the place daily and freely. If we do not reach it freely, there is no need for anyone to reach the place.”
The newspaper reported that the participants in the conference, which was headed by Rabbi Shimshon Elboim, demanded further expansion of incursions and prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, while reviewing the changes that have occurred in recent years in the status of Jews in the Mosque.
It pointed out that the conference witnessed the participation of Energy Minister Eli Cohen, Minister of Environmental Protection Idit Silman, along with a number of Knesset members from the Likud Party.
Eli Cohen said, according to the newspaper, that more than 60,000 Jews “pray annually” in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, pointing out that he led a group to storm the Mosque and perform prayers in it.
Idit Silman praised the activity of the Temple Mount Administration, while the newspaper quoted Knesset Member Boaz Bismuth as saying, “The entire people of Israel will walk behind you to the Temple Mount.”
Knesset Member Moshe Saada claimed, in statements to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, that preventing Jews from ascending during Islamic holidays is not backed by the security services, but rather by the Legal Advisor and those who revolve in her orbit.
Al-Aqsa Mosque, which Jewish groups call the Temple Mount, witnesses regular incursions carried out by settlers and Jewish groups under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, amid escalating Israeli violations that reached 26 incursions into the Mosque during last June.
On the other hand, Palestinian activists continue to call for frequenting Al-Aqsa Mosque in big numbers and to confront attempts to impose any changes inside it.
