Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: i'tikaaf

Showing posts with label i'tikaaf. Show all posts

Sunday, April 09, 2023

Jordan's Foreign Ministry reiterates that the Temple Mount - and the Kotel - must be Judenrein

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement today saying that the holiest site in Judaism must never have Jews.

The Ministry condemned the "storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif." which it says "constitutes a violation of the historical and legal status quo existing in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and a violation of the sanctity of the holy places."

The official spokesman for the ministry, Ambassador Sinan Al-Majali, stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its entire area of 144 dunums, is "a place of worship for Muslims only."

Majali added "the Israeli government bears responsibility for the escalation in Jerusalem and in all the occupied Palestinian territories, and for the deterioration that will worsen, if it does not stop these incursions into Al-Aqsa."

What are the boundaries of Al Aqsa? Well, they include the Kotel. The Jordanian government considers the Kotel to be a part of Al Aqsa Mosque, and therefore they are saying that Jews have no right to be there, either, except perhaps for very limited times that the Ottoman Empire allowed Jews to visit since 1852, which they consider the beginning of the "status quo."

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Waqf decides to tear up agreement with Israel, asks all Muslims to stay all night in Al Aqsa

As I have been reporting (and has been ignored by the mainstream media), the Jerusalem Waqf had - at Jordan's direction - written a memo saying that Muslims are not to stay overnight for the "i'tikaaf" custom at Al Aqsa Mosque. This was agreed during the Aqaba and Sharm el Sheikh summits between Israel and various Arab countries to tamp down tensions at the holy spot.

There was much Palestinian anger over this revelation. The "shabab," the youth who prefer violence to calm, said that the Waqf had no right to do that. The Waqf responded to the criticism earlier this week:

Local reports quoted the director of the Jerusalem Waqf Department, Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, as saying that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is run by a “responsible institution.” He notes that there are 22 members of the Endowment Council, and says that these members are all scholars and Jerusalemite personalities, and they appreciate the conditions in the city of Jerusalem and the circumstances of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, knowing that some of them have services for more than 50 years in Jerusalem.

He explained that the Waqf appreciates every movement in Jerusalem and in all aspects, and that since 1967, there has been i'tikaaf in the last ten days of Ramadan, in addition to Thursdays and Fridays, because the worshipers come from outside Jerusalem, and from Jordan, Gaza and some Arab and Islamic countries.

He points out that these decisions are not new to the Islamic waqf, and explains that this was the decision of the Waqf Council, and he said that it was “the right decision.”

And when al-Khatib talked about not opening the mosque for i'tikaaf on the rest of the week as well, he said: “This is a political issue that I cannot talk about. There are some things that are beyond our capacity, no more, no less.”

The shabab youth never made any secret about their intentions for i'tikaaf. It was never for quiet reflection and prayer. It was always to attempt to prevent Jews from ascending to the Temple Mount. Arabic media have made that clear from the start.

In the wake of popular anger at Israel enforcing the rules that the Waqf agreed to, the Waqf has now changed its tune.

It is now encouraging Palestinian Muslims to violate its own memorandum.

From Ammon News:

The Council of Islamic Endowments, Affairs and Holy Sites in Al-Quds Al-Sharif called on all Muslims, and those who can from the cities and villages of Palestine, to support the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Qudsi Al-Sharif, by praying, worshiping, reading the Qur’an, and obtaining the double reward at the first two qiblahs, especially before the end of the blessed month of Ramadan.
In a statement issued today, Wednesday, the council affirmed that Al-Aqsa Mosque has not and will not be closed to those in i'tikaaf, each according to his ability, program and intention, throughout the days and nights of the holy month of Ramadan.
The Council affirms that the protection of Al-Aqsa Mosque is the duty of every Muslim.

Muslims always refer to Jews as people who cannot be trusted because they break any covenant they agree to.

Look who just broke an agreement they signed.

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This video of Israeli police pushing worshipers away from the front of Al Aqsa Mosque this morning makes Israel look really bad, doesn't it?

The worshippers aren't acting aggressively. What could possibly justify this?

Here's why.

Have you ever seen Muslims worship at that place before? The mosque has been reopened since the events of this morning, there are people inside. So why are they worshipping and setting up their prayer rugs outside at that specific spot?

Because they aren't interested in prayer. They want to be human roadblocks.

Religious Jews who visit the Temple Mount must circumnavigate the entire area. They can only walk in areas where they are certain that the holiest parts of the Temple could not have been, according to Jewish law.

There is no way for them to visit the site without passing in front of the Al Aqsa mosque. And if there are people in the way, they cannot walk around them without coming unacceptably close to the place of the actual Temples.

These aren't worshippers. They are "Mourabitoun," meaning "sentinels," whose entire job is to stop Jews from visiting the site. They are paid by Islamist groups, including Hamas, to do what they can to frustrate any Jewish visitors.

In the past they would scream at and try to intimidate Jewish tourists that they saw. Now they are trying to physically block the Jews from being able to visit the site.

The Israel police are not violating the status quo - they are trying to enforce it, to allow all people to have access to the holy site, not only Muslims.

But the Mourabitoun know that videos create reality, so they positioned themselves where they knew that they would be forcibly removed, and they had the cameras ready.

To them, prayer is not an act of worship but ammunition in a weapon to remove human rights from Jews.

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The @NYTimes twists the facts about Al Aqsa this morning - and omits the most important one

This morning's New York Times article about the clashes at Al Aqsa mosque, written by Raja Abdulrahim and Patrick Kingsley, is filled with anti-Israel bias.

And it does not mention the single most important fact that would change the entire complexion of the article.

The Israeli police raided the most prominent holy site in Jerusalem early on Wednesday to detain scores of Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside, prompting armed groups in Gaza to fire rockets into Israeli airspace and the Israeli Air Force to respond with strikes on military sites in Gaza.

The phrase "prompting armed groups in Gaza to fire rockets into Israeli airspace" is incredible.

Israel doesn't "prompt" deadly rocket fire. That decision is made solely by terror groups, and they will always have an excuse. But the "Newspaper of Record" shares the logic of terror groups that shooting rockets into the south of Israel is a "natural response" to events in Jerusalem.

And note the wording, "into Israeli airspace." Were they firing balloons? While some of the rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome, others hit the ground (a factory was damaged and others fell harmlessly in unpopulated areas.)

Why couldn't the NYT say that rockets were fired into Israel or towards Israeli residential areas - phrases which would be far more straightforward and accurate? Because that might make readers a little sympathetic to the victims of the rockets! Rockets that are fired into "airspace" aren't dangerous. If it wasn't for gravity, they wouldn't have hit anything at all!

The police forced their way into one of the two main prayer halls at the contested holy site, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. In the ensuing confrontations, police officers struck Palestinians with batons and Palestinians fired fireworks. Palestinian news outlets said the police had fired tear gas and sponge-tipped bullets.

Now, which came first - the batons or the fireworks? The Times implies that the fireworks were shot to defend against batons, which is clearly the opposite of the truth..

Here are some of the spent fireworks casings.

Clashes often occur at the Aqsa Mosque compound, which Jews call the Temple Mount, during periods of tension in the region. Officials and diplomats have been warning that the overlap of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins on Wednesday evening, could make such clashes more likely.

The police said the Palestinians had locked the doors of the prayer hall, the Qibli Mosque, from the inside and barricaded the entrances, hours after the taraweeh prayers, which are held nightly during Ramadan. The police said they had raided the mosque after prolonged attempts to persuade the worshipers to leave.

...Some Palestinians had called for worshipers to go to Aqsa for itikaf, a tradition of staying overnight in a mosque for worship, which is practiced especially during Ramadan. They expressed concern that with Passover beginning, more Jewish worshipers would come to the site.

This is a gross perversion of the truth. And there is no doubt that Raja Abdulrahim is knowingly deceiving the readers.

Israel made an agreement with the Jordanian government, which controls the Waqf at Al Aqsa, that there would be no i'tikaaf at Al Aqsa on weeknights. The reason is because Palestinian and Islamist groups have urged Muslim youth to stay overnight in order to attack Jewish visitors the next morning.

Israel arranged that other nearby Jerusalem mosques would be able to accommodate any Muslims who want to adhere to the custom. In previous years, Al Aqsa did not allow i'tikaaf either.

The Waqf issued a memo confirming that no one was to stay overnight outside of Thursday and Friday nights, and the last ten days of Ramadan.

Israeli forces have been enforcing the agreement. Up until this morning, the worshipers have left peacefully. This frustrated the Islamists who have been trying to incite violence since Ramadan started. There were plenty of articles in Arabic claiming Israeli forces violently removed the worshippers, but there was no video that could incite the public.

The Islamists needed that video.

So last night, Palestinian youth barricaded themselves in the prayer hall hours after the last prayer of the night. They had already stockpiled fireworks and stones. And when they refused to leave, Israeli forces entered to enforce the Waqf agreement.

Now they had the video they wanted, as they shot fireworks and threw stones from within the holy site.

The New York Times purposefully omits anything about the agreement with the Waqf, and gives credence to the idea that Jews are the ones who are the aggressors here and Muslims have the right to block Jews from quietly praying on Judaism's holiest site:

For decades after capturing the site from Jordan in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, Israel prevented Jews from praying at the compound. But they have been tacitly allowed to do so in recent years, which has angered many Palestinians and Muslim states in the region.

And the Times further justifies the violence:

Some Jewish activists recently called for sacrificing a goat at the compound to observe Passover, something that the Israeli police have repeatedly said they would prevent.

The NYT desire to hide the fact about the agreement with Jordan to avoid events like that of this morning is clear here:

Since Ramadan began two weeks ago, the police have been forcing Muslims to leave the Aqsa compound after the nightly taraweeh prayers to ensure that they do not stay overnight. The police have also prevented many young Palestinian men from entering the mosque compound for morning prayers, according to Palestinian news outlets.

Without mentioning the Waqf memo, the reader is left with the impression that Israeli police want to disrupt an important and sacred Muslim tradition for no discernible reason.

This article may adhere to the New York Times' objectivity guidelines, but it is not objective. Every phrase is slanted to damn Israel, and the most crucial information that exonerates Israeli police actions is simply missing.

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Official Palestinian propaganda, edited to reflect the truth

The official Wafa news agency published this report in its English edition today.

I have shown how the story would be marked up by any editor who was more interested in truth rather than anti-Israel propaganda.

JERUSALEM, Tuesday, April 4, 2023 (WAFA) – Israeli police this morning and since last night restricted entry of Muslim worshippers into Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, a site Muslims seek to hold all day and night prayer vigils during the holy fast month of Ramadan, in order to secure entry of Jewish fanatics into the Muslim holy compound. The Jordanian Muslim Waqf authorities had already agreed to restrict the all-night vigils, and those who are trying to spend the night are violating that agreement.
Local sources said the police checked the ID cards of people trying to hold the dawn prayers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and turned back the young ones potential troublemakers at its gates.
Extremist Muslim groups like Hamas have encouraged Muslims to stay overnight to be in position to harass Jewish visitors the next morning.
At the same time, the police forcefully peacefully removed all worshippers from the Mosque following the late-night prayers and prevented worshippers from keeping an all-night vigil as per Israel’s agreement with Jordan, which the Waqf has publicized.
Meanwhile, dozens of Jewish fanatics stormed Jews visited the holy compound since today’s early hours, walking around its yards and some holding religious rituals in violation of the decades-old status quo that specifically ban non-Muslims from performing any kind of religious ritual inside the walled, 144-dunum holy compound that includes Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock along with several other prayer buildings. praying quietly and respectfully as Jews have been doing for years at their most sacred spot without incident.

Under international law, Jews have the right to worship in their holy spaces.

Muslim officials expressed concern that Jewish fanatics Jews intend to bring in animals to sacrifice inside the compound tomorrow as an offering with the start of the Jewish Passover holiday, a step they warned could spark serious trouble.
The fanatic These groups, encouraged by the presence of a far-right Israeli government that includes extremists ministers in key posts, have advertised rewards for anyone who can bring in animal offerings inside the compound to sacrifice for the religious holiday.
Israeli police have instructions to block any such attempt, and they have done so in previous years under other governments, so the stated fears of Muslim officials are baseless. Their statements of concern appear to be designed more to incite violence than to tamp it down.

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Arab media knows that the Waqf agreed no overnight stays in Al Aqsa - but refuse to report it

For the second Sunday night, Palestinian Muslims attempted to stay overnight in the Al Aqsa mosque in a ritual known as i'tikaaf - and Israeli forces politely removed them without incident.

As I have been reporting, the reason there has been a call for i'tikaaf this year when it has hardly ever been demanded in the first weeks of Ramadan in the past is because the Muslims want to disrupt Jews visiting the Temple Mount the next morning. This is explicitly said in Islamist media calling on herds of worshipers to "defend" the mosque from the Jewish "stormers."

Israel and Jordan, along with the Jordanian Waqf, agreed that there would only be i'tikaaf on Thursday and Friday nights, and the last ten days of Ramadan, when Jews are not allowed to ascend the next day.

Last weekend the Waqf agreement was not well publicized and there was widespread anger at Israel removing the worshippers. But during the week, Arabic social media turned its anger at the Waqf, and they published the Waqf's memo stating that no i'tikaaf would be performed until the end of Ramadan.

Everyone knows about the agreement now.

But Palestinian media reporting on Sunday night's removal of female worshippers (by female Israeli police officers) do not say a word about the Waqf agreement.

Which is just more evidence that Palestinian media cannot be trusted to report anything accurately. They are propaganda sources, and any truth that they publish is purely coincidental.

Even the official Palestinian Wafa news agency is reporting about the removal of the worshippers without mentioning the agreement that those worshippers are violating.

They are trying to incite violence - when the entire purpose of the ban on i'tikaaf is to minimize the chances for violence.

Isn't that a problem?

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The West doesn't care when Muslims try to change the Temple Mount status quo

The Jordanian Waqf and Israeli authorities agreed that Muslims would not be allowed to stay overnight in the Al Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan - a ritual known as i'tikaaf - except on Friday and Saturday nights, and on the last ten days of Ramadan.

Here's the Waqf's memo:

When Israeli forces peacefully removed the Muslims who were in the mosque last Sunday night, there was immediate outrage among Palestinians - but when they saw this memo, their anger has been redirected towards the Waqf itself.

This is because Palestinians had been calling for Muslims to stay overnight specifically to attack Jews who visit the holy site in the mornings. (Jews are not allowed to visit in the afternoons during Ramadan, and also not during the last ten days of the month.)

Now there is a campaign to force the Waqf to change the policy and allow i'tikaaf every night. The reasons given by the activists start off claiming that it is a religious right - but invariably they end up saying that it is political.

Political analyst Yasser Al-Za'trah, tweeted, "Not allowing i'tikaaf in the Al-Aqsa Mosque throughout the month of Ramadan is tantamount to an implicit recognition of the Jews' right to storm it every day."

Activist Nidaa Walid, tweeted, "We will not allow the Al-Aqsa Mosque to be defiled. It is our duty to gather and bind in it," adding, "O heroes of Palestine, do not allow settler gangs to slaughter their alleged offerings inside Al-Aqsa."

Here's a case where religion is being used as an excuse to attack Jews. Al Aqsa has never had i'tikaaf during the first half of Ramadan, and the only previous time there was a call to do so was in 2015, again specifically to be used as a means to go after Jewish visitors.

And even though this is an attack on the status quo of the Temple Mount, we are not hearing any voices of concern from the Europeans and Biden administration officials who are so quick to defend the status quo when it is supposedly threatened by Jews.

If the status quo is only enforced one way, then it is meaningless. And those who pretend it is sacred in only one direction prove that they are just using it as an excuse to limit Jewish rights.

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