Israel Desecrates Islam’s Third Holiest Site, Again

by Stephen Lendman

No crime is too outrageous for Israel to commit. Genocidal aggression is longstanding policy. So are many forms of daily persecution - ruthless police state brutality against defenseless Palestinians.

On September 13, ahead of the two-day Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah period, extremist settlers led by racist agriculture minister Uri Ariel, protected by soldiers and police, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem - Islam’s third holiest site where they don’t belong, on the fabricated pretext of conducting a security operation.

Dozens of worshipers were attacked and forcibly removed, including children, Israeli forces using tear gas and stun grenades, as well as indiscriminately firing steel-coated rubber bullets against helpless victims.

Last week, defense minister Moshe Ya’alon illegitimately banned two Muslim groups responsible for protecting the Mosque.

Israel lied claiming no Sunday injuries. A Palestinian child named Anas Siyam was hospitalized after being struck in the chest with a rubber bullet. Reports said his condition is unknown. Dozens of other Palestinians were injured.

Palestinian Ministry of Endowment (PME) overseas and maintains Al-Aqsa as well as other West Bank and East Jerusalem mosques. Its director Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani and other PME personnel were assaulted.

After the incident, the Fatah Raafat Ulayyan movement urged Palestinians to defend the holy site from Israeli rampaging and ongoing “process of Judaization.”

Palestinian MK Ahmad Tibi was in Al-Aqsa when Israeli forces attacked, saying what happened is part of Netanyahu’s intent to divide the mosque, desecrate it further by designating daily hours for extremist settlers to worship where they don’t belong.

He urged resistance to protect sacred Muslim holy sites. Netanyahu’s regime includes a rogue’s gallery of fanatical Zionists and vicious racists.

Desecrating any religious holy site is a high crime, a far greater one attacking Al-Aqsa. Numerous earlier incidents occurred. Expect many more to follow.

Separately on Sunday, Israeli forces attacked Palestinians in Gaza. Witnesses said they willfully opened fire. Two arrests followed.

Similar incidents occur often. Scores of Palestinian fishermen are attacked at sea - for the crime of fishing, causing injuries and deaths. Vessels and equipment are damaged and confiscated.

Palestinians on their own land approaching too close to Israel’s border barrier risk being shot and killed, even young children.

On Rosh Hashanah eve, Netanyahu delivered a provocative, outrageous rant, calling legitimate Israeli critics “bigoted and prejudiced,” accusing them of making “slanderous charges.”

He ludicrously called Israel “a beacon of progress…of democracy and of human rights in a region plagued by fanaticism, by terror, by unbelievable savagery.”

Racist state terror is longstanding Israeli policy, Netanyahu its leading exponent - an unindicted war criminal belonging in prison, not high office, along with numerous other hate-mongering zealots in his coalition regime.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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