32 Years Since The Burning Of Al Aqsa

Occupied Jerusalem: 21 August, 2001

Palestinians today observed the lapse of 32 years since a Zionist terrorist set Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque on fire, burning down much of the interior of the magnificent Islamic shrine.

Thirty two years today, an Australian Zionist named Dennis Michael Rohan, using highly flammable substance provided by the Israeli intelligence, started the fire inside the Mosque, which soon gutted the famous Minbar of Sallahuddin as well as much of the mosque's interior.

The Israeli occupation army then seriously impeded efforts to extinguish the fire, thus maximizing the damage.

Speaking on the somber occasion Tuesday , Sheikh Tahsir Tamimi pointed out that Jewish designs and plots against Islam's third holiest site were even more brazen now than they were 32 years ago.

"We see before our eyes how Jewish terrorist groups, in connivance with the Israeli government, are plotting to destroy our holy place, which means that the danger is looming and therefore we must be vigilant."

Tamimi said Jewish circles were using a variety of ways and means to carry out their sinister goals.

"They are using every conceivable means to destroy the Islamic shrine…from bombs and aerial bombardment to digging subterranean tunnels beneath the Mosque."

Tamimi called on Arabs and Muslims to pay more attention to the Aqsa Mosque "before it is too late."

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation authorities continue to bar millions of Muslims from accessing the Mosque on the ground that Jerusalem is "the united capital of the world."

No other country, including the United States, recognizes Israeli annexation of Jerusalem, done immediately after the 1967-occupation of the West Bank.

Last year, a provocative visit by the then Israeli opposition leader and now Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the Aqsa esplanade sparked off the current Palestinian intifada, rightly named the "Aqsa intifada."

The Mosque is considered the thirst holiest shrine in Islam, and experts believe there can be no durable peace or quiet in the Middle East as long as Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque remain are under Israeli occupation and control.

Rohan’s attack on Al Aqsa is just one in a long list of threats to the sacred Mosque, and attacks on Muslim rights in Jerusalem. Other draconian measures directed at the Palestinian population, especially in Jerusalem, include maintaining a military closure of Jerusalem, limiting the freedom of movement, limiting economic development, restricting the freedom of worship of Palestinian Christians and Muslims from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, house demolitions of Palestinians homes, the confiscation of identification cards and the overall adoption of policies in order create conditions of psychological and economic pressure such that non-Jews are forced to move out of the city altogehter.

Just last month, zionist occupation authorities allowed the extremist group, the Temple Mount Faithful, to place a 4-½ ton boulder at the foot of the Noble Sanctuary. The group is intent on destroying Al-Aqsa and building the Jewish temple in its place. The boulder they placed symbolizes the first step in that process.

The ongoing institutionalized discrimination against the Palestinian population and violations of the sanctity of Islamic holy places in Jerusalem confirm that Israel cannot be entrusted to observe or protect the religious freedom of non-Jews living under its occupation.