Al-Aqsa Sheikh: Situation in the city is very dangerous

Grand Sheikh of Al-Aqsa Mosque Ekrema Sabri yesterday warned that the situation in Jerusalem is “very dangerous” because of the continuous settler desecration of Al-Aqsa.

Speaking to the Palestinian newspaper Al-Resalah, Sabri said that the situation in the mosque has been intensified by the “provocative” acts being carried out almost on a daily basis in the third most holy site for Muslims.

He considered what is going on inside and around the mosque an “unacceptable aggression against Islam’s holy site and a flagrant violation carried out before the Arab, Islamic and international communities, which do nothing to curb it.”

Sabri said that these repeated aggressions aim to create a new Israeli “status quo and reality” in the holy city, exploiting the state of instability.

The Sheikh, who delivers most of the Friday sermons in the mosque, called for Palestinian worshipers to remain inside the mosque all day in order to face the repeated settler aggression –supported by the Israeli government – against the mosque.

Israeli Jewish settlers storm the mosque almost daily. Extremist Jewish NGOs, rabbis and sometimes state officials have repeatedly called on settlers to storm the mosque and urged security officials to protect them.

Early this week, Jewish rabbis and NGOs called on settlers to storm the most yesterday and today under the banner: “The Temple Mount is in our hands.” Israelis and Jews refer to Al-Aqsa Mosque as “The Temple Mount”.

Meanwhile, Jewish NGOs called for hundreds of settlers to storm the mosque and raise the Israeli flag today to mark Israeli Independence Day.

Watch an exclusive MEMO video of settlers touring the Al-Aqsa compound.