Jews Down Under An online magazine for Australian Jews
-
PA daily op-ed: Notre Dame fire is same as “Zionist invasions that desecrate” the Al-Aqsa Mosque
The Palestinian National Council – the PLO’s legislative body – has compared “the deviant ideology” behind the mass murder of hundreds of Christians by Muslims in suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday to “the ideology that causes settlers to break into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.”
In a strategy to try to keep Jews away from the Temple Mount, the Palestinian Authority and its leaders have declared the entire Temple Mount a part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and exclusively an Islamic site. To support this claim they vilify any presence of Jews on the mount as a “desecration,” “defilement,” “break-in,” or “invasion” of the mosque.
This PA ideology has led to the odious comparison. The Palestinian National Council announced that the murder of more than 250 people in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka is similar to Jews visiting the Temple Mount.
The PNC described the attacks in Sri Lanka as “immoral and contrary to religious and human values,” and similar to the ideology that makes Jewish “settlers” “break in” to the Al-Aqsa Mosque:
The comparison is even more repugnant considering the PA and Fatah’s reactions to the slaughter of 4 Jews worshipping in the Har Nof synagogue in Jerusalem in 2014. Although the PA officially condemned it, Abbas’ advisor called the murders a “heroic operation” and “blessed” the terrorists’ weapons – “your kitchen knives and axes” – while Fatah “welcomed the operation” and “escorted” the terrorist “Martyrs” to “Paradise.”
Another hateful comparison was made by the writer of an op-ed in the official PA daily who stated that the fire that devastated the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris earlier this month was similar to the “daily Zionist invasions that desecrate” the Al-Aqsa Mosque”:
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that Mahmoud Abbas likewise says that Jews defile the Al-Aqsa Mosque, although he recently pretended to American students to embrace Jews’ rights to perform religious rituals anywhere.
The following is a longer excerpt of the statement by the PLO legislative body:
Headline: “Palestine condemns the terror attack against its friend Sri Lanka”
Sri Lanka bombings 2019 – A series of suicide bombing attacks took place simultaneously in Sri Lanka in churches and hotels, murdering 290 and wounding over 500, on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019. The Sri Lankan government has accused the Muslim terrorist organization National Thowheed Jamath of being behind the attacks, although the group has yet to claim responsibility.
The PA and its leaders consider all of the Temple Mount an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore they view any presence of Jews on the mount as an “invasion” or a “break-in.” It should be noted that Jews who visit the Temple Mount only enter some sections of the open areas, and do not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Israeli police ban Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount because of threats of violence by Palestinians.
Excavations under the Temple Mount – The Israeli daily Haaretz has stated that the excavations do not reach beneath the mosque: “Despite complaints from the Islamic Movement and Palestinian groups, not a single dig penetrates beneath the [Temple] Mount.” [Haaretz, May 24, 2016]
=====
