The Jerusalem Governorate warned of the dangers of exploiting Jewish holidays to impose new realities on the ground, allowing incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque and disrupting the daily lives and movement of Jerusalem residents, amid an escalation in violations by Israeli occupation authorities and settlers in the city during the third day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
اضافة اعلان
In a statement issued Monday, the governorate said Israeli occupation forces had closed the Wadi Al-Rababa intersection in the Silwan area since the morning, coinciding with students heading to schools and causing severe traffic congestion on surrounding roads. They also closed Bab Al-Asbat Street toward Bab Al-Rahma Cemetery and Bab Al-Maghariba, with further closures expected on roads leading to the Western Wall to secure the movement of settlers taking part in collective religious rituals.
The governorate said these measures were not merely temporary security arrangements, but constituted collective punishment of Jerusalem residents, systematic restrictions on their movement and the use of the city’s streets and facilities to serve settlers’ religious rituals. It said Jerusalem residents were being forced to bear the burden of closures, congestion, disruption of their affairs and restrictions on their freedom of movement.
It stressed that protecting settlers during their incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque cannot be separated from the accompanying occupation measures in the Old City, Silwan and the vicinity of Al-Aqsa, including road closures, tightened military restrictions and disruptions to Palestinian movement. These measures, it said, effectively make the movement of Jerusalem residents subject to the needs and rituals of settlers.
The governorate stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque is not an open arena for experiments by Israeli occupation authorities and settlers, nor a place for reviving what it described as alleged historical rituals at the expense of the mosque’s Islamic identity. It warned that continued such practices risk further escalating tensions in Jerusalem and across the region.
It called on the international community, Arab and Islamic countries, and relevant international institutions to fulfill their legal, political and moral responsibilities by taking immediate action to halt incursions and provocative rituals inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and pressure the Israeli government to stop measures targeting freedom of worship and the established historical and legal status quo at the mosque.
The governorate also called for documenting all violations in Jerusalem during the Jewish holidays, including incursions, prayers, religious rituals, closures and restrictions on the movement of Jerusalem residents, describing them as part of what it characterized as an integrated policy aimed at changing the city’s religious and cultural landscape and imposing new realities by force.
The Jerusalem Governorate affirmed that Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque would remain symbols of Palestinian national and religious identity, adding that Israeli occupation measures and settler practices, regardless of their escalation, do not grant legitimacy over the mosque or alter what it described as its religious and legal status.
Source: WAFA
