The Occupation Escalates Its Violations in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, Turning the City into a Military Barracks

Jerusalem - Afaq News - The Jerusalem Governorate stated that the city of Jerusalem has witnessed, since the morning hours today, a serious escalation in the violations by the Israeli occupation authorities and settlers, coinciding with the third day of the so-called "Feast of Tabernacles" (Sukkot), warning of the danger of turning Hebrew holidays into an occasion to impose new realities on the ground, violate the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and disrupt the lives and daily movements of Jerusalemites.

The governorate explained that the occupation forces closed the Wadi Rababa junction in the town of Silwan since the morning, coinciding with students heading to their schools, which caused severe traffic congestion in the surrounding streets. They also closed the Bab al-Asbat street towards the Bab al-Rahma cemetery and Bab al-Maghariba, amid expectations that the closures would extend to other roads leading to the Western Wall, in order to secure the movement of settlers participating in collective religious rituals.

The governorate confirmed that these measures do not represent mere temporary security arrangements, but rather constitute collective punishment for Jerusalemites and a systematic restriction of their movement, utilizing the city and its facilities and streets to serve the rituals of the colonizers, while the residents of Jerusalem are forced to bear the burdens of closures, congestion, and disruption of their interests and freedom of movement.

In the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, the governorate stated that about 300 settlers stormed the mosque courtyards since the morning, coinciding with performing religious rituals related to the so-called "Feast of Tabernacles," in a scene that goes beyond traditional incursions to an attempt to impose collective religious manifestations and rituals inside the mosque courtyards.

It pointed out that a number of settlers brought into the mosque what is known as the "four species" of plants associated with the rituals of the Feast of Tabernacles, while one of them left them inside the mosque to enable other settlers to use them later during their prayers and rituals, which the governorate considers a dangerous development in the nature of the incursions and a clear attempt to introduce Jewish holiday rituals into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Settlers performed the "Musaf" prayer in its specific form at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which they refer to as the "Temple Mount," including themes related to holiday sacrifices, simulating ancient Jewish worship rituals. The authorities view this as an attempt to impose a new religious perception on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to change its nature, function, and status, constituting an assault on the historical and legal status quo of the mosque.

The authorities pointed out that the scene was not limited to performing prayers, as the mosque's courtyards witnessed singing, dancing, and collective celebratory displays by the settlers during their incursions, in a provocative behavior that infringes on the sanctity of the mosque and the feelings of Muslims, confirming that these incursions are increasingly becoming a space for public religious rituals inside the mosque.

The Jerusalem authorities warned that the repeated allowance of these practices inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, along with the military protection provided to the intruders, represents a serious escalation in the policy of imposing facts on the ground, and an attempt to entrench a temporal and spatial division of the mosque by exploiting Jewish holidays and religious occasions to impose new rituals within one of the holiest Islamic sites.

They emphasized that the protection of settlers during their incursions cannot be separated from the occupation measures that accompany them in the Old City, Silwan, and the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, including street closures, tightening military procedures, and disrupting the movement of citizens, which transforms Jerusalem into a city where the movement of its residents is managed according to the needs and rituals of the settlers.

The Jerusalem authorities stressed that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque is not an open space for the experiments of the occupation authorities and their settlers, nor a place for the re-production of alleged historical rituals at the expense of the mosque's Islamic identity, warning that the continuation of these practices threatens to ignite the situation in Jerusalem and the entire region.

The governorate called on the international community, Arab and Islamic countries, and relevant international institutions to bear their legal, political, and moral responsibilities, and to take immediate action to stop the incursions and provocative rituals inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to pressure the occupying government to halt its measures targeting freedom of worship and the existing historical and legal status of the mosque.

It also called for documenting all violations witnessed in Jerusalem during the Hebrew holidays, including incursions, prayers, religious rituals, closures, and restrictions imposed on the movement of Jerusalemites, considering them part of an integrated policy aimed at changing the religious and cultural landscape of the city and imposing new realities by force.

The Jerusalem governorate affirmed that Jerusalem and its Al-Aqsa Mosque will remain a symbol of Palestinian national and religious identity, and that the measures of the occupation and the practices of settlers, no matter how escalated, do not grant legitimacy to the occupation over the mosque nor change the reality of its identity and religious and legal status.