They knew that it had to be evil, because the hated Jews were doing it, but they couldn't quite figure out the reason that they should seethe. The best reason they could come up with was:
“It is an attempt to hit hard at commercial life in the Old City, especially the Muslim Quarter,” said Hatem Abdel Qader, an adviser on Jerusalem affairs to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
That reason made no sense at all, and it showed how infantile Palestinian Arab leaders are in reflexively attributing anything Israel does as being aimed purely at hurting them.
Well, three months later, the Al Aqsa Foundation finally came up with more reasons to be upset at Zionists renovating a Muslim-built gate: because the Jews are trying to redirect people from the Damascus Gate (which abuts the Muslim quarter) with Jaffa Gate.
Of course, Israel is planning to renovate Damascus Gate too, so that logic doesn't quite fly.
Even so, the Al Aqsa Foundation - which comes out with hysterical press releases about the "Judaizing" of Jerusalem every day - adds a few more problems. They say that the Jews are putting Biblical and Talmudic sayings around Jaffa Gate, that Israel is working to help tourists enter the Old City in opposition to local Arab Jerusalemites, that Israel is trying to "blockade" the Old City.
One gets the impression that the Al Aqsa Foundation spends all its time flinging mud and hoping that some of it will stick to the wall. The entire organization is one giant incitement factory.
The problem is, even though they have a track record of making predictions that never come true, they are still treated with respect and their press releases still get prominent coverage in the Arabic press