Occupied Jerusalem- Extremist Temple groups prepared exceptionally this year for the Festival of Lights (Hanukkah in Hebrew), and announced the organization of a march in the streets of Jerusalem tomorrow evening, Thursday, according to advertisements they published on social media, to mobilize their supporters to participate in it.
According to the calls circulated by the groups, the march – which the Israeli police agreed to organize – aims to remove the guardianship of the Islamic Endowments from Al-Aqsa Mosque, renew full Jewish control over Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and perpetuate the memory of the Israeli dead in the war.
The march will begin at exactly seven-thirty, passing through Damascus Gate (one of the gates of the Old City) and through the alleys of the Old City, arriving at Al-Buraq Square, west of Al-Aqsa Mosque, where the first flame of the menorah will be lit.
The Israeli newspaper “Maariv” published that the police are preparing for this march by deploying more forces, which has been the practice since the outbreak of the war on the seventh of last October.
The newspaper added that hundreds of police officers and security guards will be present in the Old City area, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Al-Buraq Square.
With the approval and protection of the occupation police.
At 7:30 p.m. the day after tomorrow, Thursday, the Temple groups will organize a march on the eve of the Jewish Festival of Lights (Hanukkah) that will pass through the Damascus and Sahira Gates, and some of the doors of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and end in front of the occupied Buraq Wall to light the large menorah, and the extremists will demand… pic.twitter.com/0nxQxRrPxz– Dr. Ali Al-Qaradaghi (@Ali_AlQaradaghi) December 5, 2023
Monitor and spread
According to the newspaper, the police are monitoring calls via social media for access to Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Muslim and Jewish public, stressing that their spread will increase on the eve of Hanukkah and throughout the days of the holiday “in order to prevent friction and escalation on both sides and to thwart it in advance to prevent igniting a fire in the Jerusalem area and the Temple Mount,” according to the newspaper. Her expression.
As part of the official preparations, the occupation municipality lit up the historic Jerusalem Wall on the side of the Hebron Gate with light displays that included the menorah that symbolizes this holiday and wrote “Happy Hanukkah” next to it.
As for the settlers’ raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque on the occasion of this holiday, they will extend over a period of 5 days, starting next Sunday and ending on Thursday, and extremist Temple groups have been invited to participate in them, noting that according to data from the Islamic Endowments Department, 1,795 extremist men and women stormed the mosque over the course of the days of Eid Al-Anwar. last year.
The celebrations of this holiday commemorate the so-called “victory of the Hasmoneans” in their revolution against the Greeks during the “Second Temple” period, according to the claim of the Jews who claimed that the Greeks oppressed rights and prevented Jewish worship, and their “revolution” resulted in the occupation of Jerusalem and the replacement of Jewish rule with Greek rule.
One of the most important symbols of this holiday is the menorah, from which a new flame is lit every day for 8 days. The Jews claim that when they occupied Jerusalem and entered the “Temple” after the victory, they found a small jug of pure oil, and it was supposed to be emptied after lighting the flame on the first night, but it continued.” “Miracle” for 8 days.
Before the Eid of Lights, the official Rabbinate in Israel sets up the central celebration candlestick in Buraq Square with the aim of lighting its candles every night. As for the extremist groups, they either try to smuggle the candlesticks to light them in Al-Aqsa Mosque during the days of the holiday, or they try to light a fire inside it using various methods, such as using “lighters.”
The Supreme Islamic Authority in Jerusalem calls, in a statement, for the necessity of traveling to Al-Aqsa to break the siege imposed on it, and to pray and observe prayers in the nearby streets if access to it is prevented, in light of the severe siege imposed by the occupation on it. #Al-Aqsa Since October 7, the entire Islamic nation has called for the necessity of… pic.twitter.com/hV1slKWIGP
– Tel Aviv Tribune Net | Jerusalem (@Aljazeeraquds) December 6, 2023
Al-Aqsa is in the most dangerous stage
For its part, the Supreme Islamic Authority in Jerusalem – headed by Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri – said that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque “has been going through the most dangerous stage in its history for 60 days since the occupation of the Holy City.”
She added – in a statement reached Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that “the occupation authorities prevent Muslims from entering it almost completely, taking advantage of the world and the media’s preoccupation with the brutal massacres and massacres that are happening in Gaza.”
The Islamic Authority added that, in conjunction with this ban, the Israeli authorities allow extremists to illegally break into the mosque and practice their rituals there, which constitutes a real seizure of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and a change in the status quo therein, and also establishes the foundation for its demolition or division in preparation for the establishment of their alleged temple.
In its statement, the Islamic Authority called for the necessity of mobilizing and traveling towards Al-Aqsa Mosque, praying and bandaging in the streets in the event that the occupation prevents worshipers from reaching it.
She warned the occupation authorities and the settlers against continuing to implement their plans in the mosque, “because that threatens to blow up the entire Islamic nation in their faces,” adding that “what is happening in Gaza today is a direct result of their failure to listen to our warnings and cries that we have always directed to them.”
For its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a press statement that it views this march and its repercussions on the situation in occupied East Jerusalem with great seriousness.
She saw Thursday’s march as “a blatant attack on the Palestinian people, and on the Jordanian Hashemite custodianship of the holy sites in Jerusalem, and that it constitutes a blatant violation of United Nations resolutions that affirm that East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967 and is the capital of the State of Palestine.”