Arabs desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque

Tisha B'Av marks the destruction of our first and second temple and is the most solemn day on the Jewish calendar. Jews flock to the old city of Jerusalem in pilgrimage to pray at our holy sites.

With the intention of attacking Jewish  worshipers coming to the old City to pray on Tisha B'Av., Palestinians stockpiled rocks and firebombs within the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. 

Is this any way to treat a holy site, and a place of worship?

Palestinians desecrating Al Aqsa

Police on the scene were attacked  with a shower of rocks, fire bombs and iron bars. Four officers were lightly injured. Police released this video, showing the attack
From within Al Aqsa, a clip of rock throwing

Attempted murder. Its just "child's play" to Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada.

Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada has posted a video captioned "Israeli forces smash Palestinian child’s head to ground near Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa". The  video has made the rounds of the usual "I hate Israel sites".  On facebook,  the hyperbole continues:

Who is this "child", this "young Palestinian boy"?

We can find the answer on the Arabic website, Wafa, the official  Palestinian news agency  which reported:

"Israeli occupation forces arrested, today Friday, the Jerusalemite teenager Hasan Afif Hasan al-Afifi (age 17), of Bab al-Hadid in the Old City, after they attacked him. Al-Afifi’s mother told Wafa that her son was arrested during the violent confrontations that occurred at the Al-Aqsa mosque today, and that her son was nowhere near the mosque and did not participate in any activities.

17 is hardly a "young Palestinian boy". Hardly a "child".

 The arrest of Hasan  al-Afifi  followed a day of clashes on the temple Mount.  According to the Lebanon Daily Star

Israeli police hurled stun grenades and fired tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters who threw stones outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, after Friday prayers. “Several hundred worshippers threw stones at police who were stationed at the Mughrabi Gate, forcing them to go onto the plaza and push them toward the middle,” Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. An AFP correspondent said the forces had used sound bombs to disperse the crowds. Two people suffered minor injures, while one person was arrested for attempting to stab a policeman as he was being taken into custody, another Israeli spokesman added. The unrest broke out after days of tension at the compound.  Nine people were arrested Thursday. Five were Arab Israelis, who were accused of threatening Jewish and Christian visitors to the site, and four Israeli Jews, three of them right-wing activists who tried to force their way onto the plaza.

The Attorney general's office will charge Hasan with attempting to stab a soldier and throwing rocks at Israeli police.   Attempted murder . Its just "child's play" to Ali Abunimah of  the Electronic Intifada.. 

"Teach your children hatred for the enemies of Islam"

Jerusalem, our city of light, of gold, of peace has been the beating heart of Jewish life for thousands of years. The organizers of the failed Global march to Jerusalem- a proposed attempt to surround and invade the city earlier this year -objected to the "Judiazation" of Jerusalem. They needn't have worried. Its a done deal. Jerusalem is mentioned in the Tanakh 669 times.

What historic significance does Jerusalem have to the Muslim people?

From Mordechai Kedar

Islamization was practiced on places as well as persons: Mecca and the holy stone - al-Ka'bah - were holy sites of the pre-Islamic pagan Arabs. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and the Great Mosque of Istanbul were erected on the sites of Christian-Byzantine churches - two of the better known examples of how Islam treats sanctuaries of other faiths.

Jerusalem, too, underwent the process of Islamization: at first Muhammad attempted to convince the Jews near Medina to join his young community, and, by way of persuasion, established the direction of prayer (kiblah) to be to the north, towards Jerusalem, in keeping with Jewish practice; but after he failed in this attempt he turned against the Jews, killed many of them, and directed the kiblah southward, towards Mecca.

Muhammad's abandonment of Jerusalem explains the fact that this city is not mentioned even once in the Koran. After Palestine was occupied by the Muslims, its capital was Ramlah, 30 miles to the west of Jerusalem, signifying that Jerusalem meant nothing to them.

Its not the Judiazation of Jerusalem we should worry about- its quite the opposite. Kedar continues:

Another aim of the Islamization of Jerusalem was to undermine the legitimacy of the older religions, Judaism and Christianity, which consider Jerusalem to be a holy city. Islam is presented as the only legitimate religion, destined to replace the other two, because they had changed and distorted the Word of God, each in its turn.

Though Judaism and Christianity can exist side by side in Jerusalem, Islam regards both of them as betrayals of Allah and his teachings, and has always done, and will continue to do, all in its power to expel both of them from this city.

We've seen evidence of this attempted undermining of the heritage of Jerusalem in the weeks prior to the Global march, with the Arab press falling all over itself reporting on "Extremist settlers" "storming" Al Aqsa. The propaganda war is continuing.

The Palestine Foundation Pakistan (sorry- I don't link to hate sites) includes amongst their '100 ways" to liberate the Aqsa Mosque these choice bits of advice:

*Women should teach their children the lesson of jihad and martyrdom in the way of Allah because Palestine can be liberated by this way.

*To make slogans about Aqsa mosque for e.g.: As long as I am alive, I shall not allow Aqsa mosque’s desolation, Aqsa Mosque is in danger, Aqsa is not alone, Quds belongs to us, This is our mosque and not the place of idols, O Aqsa Mosque, our lives and properties are sacrificed on you.

*To educate your children about the conspiracies of Zionism and ensure your children participate in anti-Zionist activities.

*To teach your children hatred for enemies of Islam.

Teaching martyrdom, jihad and hatred as community values. This makes me tremble with fear for the future generations. Pray for the children fed on hatred and for the Israeli children who will someday face them.

A new Blood Libel? The "storming" of the Temple Mount

Likud activist Moshe Feiglin is planning on taking Likud committee members to the Temple Mount tomorrow. Feiglin's spokesman claims that he goes to the Temple Mount every year on the 19th of Shevat.

Anti-Israel groups have ratcheted up their rhetoric and are accusing him of "Storming the Temple Mount" . The level of invective and hyperbole on anti-Israel websites might be enough to spark a third Intifada. Perhaps that is even the goal.

From the blog "The Warped Mirror"


It’s not about the “occupation” – the call to “defend” the Al-Aqsa mosque against imaginary Jewish onslaughts has been used with often deadly consequences since the 1920s."

"The idea that the Al-Aqsa mosque is threatened by Jews is an invention that goes back to the days of Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, who later gained notoriety as a Nazi collaborator. In the 1920s, al Husseini renovated the “Haram al-Sharif” – as the Temple Mount is known in Arabic – and he began to accuse “the Zionists” of plotting to rebuild the Jewish Temple. His incitement contributed to repeated outbreaks of violence against Jews that culminated in the Hebron massacre of 1929.

Some 80 years later, al Husseini’s legacy is echoed in the incitement spread by the likes of Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, and Sheikh Kamal Khatib, another leading figure of this group.

Both of these Islamic leaders have made statements and speeches that mix fervent Muslim piety, fanatic nationalism, antisemitism and racism. While Salah doesn’t give interviews to Jewish reporters, Khatib declared in a recent interview on Israeli radio that Jews have no historical connection to the Temple Mount and that Muslim sensibilities were offended by the presence of Jewish security guards “from Ethiopia” – whom he referred to with a racist slur against blacks. For good measure, some Islamic Movement followers shouted during a recent demonstration the triumphalist Muslim slogan often used in attacks against Jews: “Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud, jish Muhammad saya’oud” – that is: “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, Mohammed’s army will return”.




The extremists from the Global March to jerusalem are using this fabrication to promote their cause, with a photo of a fire at Al Aqsa from 1969, claiming it was started by "zionists".

It wasn't though. Denis Michael Rohan was an Australian citizen who gained worldwide infamy on 21 August 1969, when he attempted to set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque, located atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Rohan was arrested for the arson attack on 23 August 1969. He was tried, found to be insane, and hospitalized in a mental institution. On 14 May 1974, he was later deported from Israel "on humanitarian grounds, for further psychiatric treatment near his family". He was subsequently transferred to the Callan Park Hospital in Australia. In 1995, he was reported to have died under psychiatric care

The near hysterical rhetoric of the anti-Zionists, coupled with the irresponsible behavior of Moshe Feiglin are fanning the flames of a very difficult situation.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.