PA to Hold Israel Responsible for Any Attack on Al-Aqsa
Agencies Arab News
GAZA CITY, 21 March 2005 —
The Palestinian Authority will hold Israel responsible if right-wing Jewish extremists make good on threats to attack or take over Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a minister said yesterday. “The Palestinian Authority places all responsibility for any aggression against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Israeli authorities,” Religious Affairs Minister Yussef Salameh told reporters in Gaza City.
“If the settlers go through with their threats against the mosque, we are sure it will be with official Israeli approval because the Israeli authorities are the only ones who can prevent these aggressions,” he charged.
Last week, Israeli television screened a video showing Jewish extremists discussing ways of occupying the compound site in a bid to sabotage the evacuation, prompting Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei to warn that any such move would cause the region to “explode”. Dozens of police reinforcements have recently been deployed around the compound for fear of an extremist attack.
Meanwhile, up to 400 Palestinian Christians demonstrated in Jerusalem yesterday to protest against reports that the Greek Orthodox church has sold two properties in the Old City to foreign Jewish investors. The protesters marched from the Holy Sepulchre Church to the Greek Orthodox patriarchy holding aloft Arabic and Greek placards proclaiming: “Keep the Church for the Orthodox Arabs,” and “Yes to the Arabization of the Church”.
Hundreds of people crowded into an ally outside the patriarchy chanting: “We are the Arab Orthodox Church” and “This is our land”. “He (the patriarch) is Judas because he is selling the land of the Christians to the Jews,” said Tareq Kreitem, a 30-year-old engineer, denouncing the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Jerusalem. “This will have a very bad impact on Muslim-Christian relations in Jerusalem because the Muslims will accuse us of selling land to the Jews,” said Hani Queri, 45, an Orthodox Christian who works in import and distribution.