Khater calls for comprehensive national plan for Jerusalem after reconciliation

[ 01/05/2011 - 12:20 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Dr. Hassan Khater, the secretary general of the Islamic Christian society for the support of Jerusalem, hoped that the Palestinian national reconciliation would boost concern with the issue of Jerusalem.

Khater said in a press release on Sunday that Jerusalem paid a heavy price as a result of the inter-Palestinian rift, explaining that Israel exploited the division to increase its Judaization of the holy city, intensify settlement activity, and impose de facto conditions on the Aqsa Mosque and other holy shrines.

He said that the current situation in Jerusalem necessitates greater concern and plans, adding that Jerusalem was impatiently waiting for a national, comprehensive plan to confront the Judaization threat.

Return to national unity should entail an essential upgrading in the concern for Jerusalem starting with the national plan that should help the Palestinian leadership and Arab and international institutions concerned with Jerusalem to restore the balance to the confrontation with occupation, he concluded.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Aqsa foundation accused IOA of facilitating settlers' desecration of Aqsa Mosque

[ 29/04/2011 - 02:04 PM ]

Occupied Jerusalem, (PIC)-- The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) has accused Thursday that Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) of helping and protecting Israeli settlers desecrating the Aqsa Mosque.

According to sources in AFEH, a group of Israeli female soldiers were seen roaming the plazas of the Mosque under tight protection from tens of Israeli occupation soldiers Thursday.

AFEH added that a group of Israeli engineers carrying maps of the alleged Third temple were also seen strolling inside and searching certain parts of the Mosque, warning that the IOA exploits Jewish festivals to give legitimacy to such provocative desecration measures.

The organization further said that the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and in the 1948-occupied Palestinian land would protect the Mosque at all costs, describing the foundation's activities in the Mosque as the safeguard against those Israeli measures.

"The IOA is trying to create facts on the ground by bringing those settlers into the Aqsa Mosque during Jewish religious occasions in order to create an atmosphere of acceptance in the Palestinian community that those practices are normal," AFEH pointed out.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Thousands of Palestinians attend 9th Aqsa child festival

[ 24/04/2011 - 10:41 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- More than 15,000 Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands attended on Saturday the ninth festival of the Aqsa child and the third drawing contest for kids in the Aqsa Mosque's courtyards.

Deputy head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib expressed his extreme delight to see such crowds attending this event to show their attachment to their holy sites.

For his part, head of the higher Islamic commission Sheikh Ikrima Sabri urged in his speech the participating parents and teachers to break the barrier of fear inside the hearts of their children and students and familiarize them with the Islamic values of courage and honesty.

The festival included songs, poetry and awards for the winning boys and girls in the drawing contest.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Sheikh Salah: The Aqsa child festival gained global momentum

[ 21/04/2011 - 08:43 AM ]

 

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, on Wednesday said the ninth festival of the Aqsa child fund has gained global momentum, calling on the Palestinians to actively participate in the event.

Al-Bayareq foundation for defending the Aqsa Mosque, Imarat Al-Aqsa organization, and the Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage are still embarking on making all preparations for the ninth festival of the Aqsa child fund and the third festival of drawing.

Tens of thousands of children and parents are expected to participate in the events slated to be held on Saturday 23/4/2011 at the Aqsa Mosque compound.

"Praise be to Allah, there are harbingers of the establishment of the Aqsa child fund in many Muslim and Arab countries or even by the Muslim communities in different foreign countries," Sheikh Salah, who is banned from entering the Aqsa Mosque, stated.

He pointed out that pro-Palestinian activists all over the world intend to organize festivals in support of Palestine children in their countries simultaneously with the Aqsa child festivals to be held in occupied Jerusalem.

"We will make the whole world hear that the Aqsa Mosque is purely an Islamic, Arab, and Palestinian right and the occupation is illegitimate and will end," the Sheikh stressed.

Israeli soldier hurls grenade near Aqsa Mosque


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israel gearing to open tunnel network under Aqsa Mosque area

[ 20/04/2011 - 03:53 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation authorities are making preparations ahead of opening a network of underground tunnels near the Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The tunnels stretch from under walls of the sacred zone to Jerusalem's Old City.

Several tunnels had been dug out over various periods over the last forty years, Haaretz said. They were also interconnected through a tunnel network plan, with the main entrance in the city's Silwan district, which neighbors the mosque area. From there, they can be taken to the Al-Buraq wall, known to Jews as the Wailing Wall, west of the mosque, and they extends to the Old City's Muslim quarter, where a number of settlement outposts and Jewish synagogues have been built.

Israeli officials expect the tunnel network will serve as a new tourist attraction for hundreds of thousands of foreigners yearly, Haaretz said. Tourists would be able to enter Silwan and walk below the surface of the earth to Jerusalem's Old City.

According to Haaretz, the excavations have ruined the archaeological features under the ground. The objective was to dig past Islamic and Christian features in a bid to stumble upon Jewish artifacts.

The project itself was aimed at enhancing settlement outposts erected in the city's Muslim quarter by linking them to outposts in the Silwan district.

Israeli archaeologist Yoram Tseverir has declared that digging under the mosque is ”wrong”, assuring that no scientific findings can be made thereby.

The digging has caused serious cracking and cave-ins in the mosque's square.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Jerusalem aid committee announced in Washington

[ 16/04/2011 - 01:57 PM ]

WASHINGTON, (PIC)-- The establishment of an international campaign designed to curb the Israeli Judaization of Jerusalem was announced in United States capital Washington, DC on Friday. The campaign will include a group of international figures as well as political and media events from across the world.

The campaign said it would take Jerusalem as its main contact center, and that the center would be linked to Ramallah, Nazareth, and Gaza to provide information.

The Jerusalem protection campaign is aimed at protecting Jerusalem families who are threatened by Israeli plans to displace major portions of the Arab population in the city and replace them with Jewish settlers.

The nature of the group's work is concentrated in transmitting news and reports to media by using reporters stationed across the globe. It has a keen interest to be fully independent and non-alligned with any political party.

The announcement comes as Washington has passed a decision to heavily increase support for the Israeli army.

The US has allocated $205m of its national budget to enhance and develop the Israeli army's anti missile systems, as the Iron Dome system is being deployed in Israel to intercept rocket-propelled short projectile missiles.

According to Israeli media sources, the US House of Representatives has approved the move in the largest yet grant to enhance an anti-missile defense system. Sources from the army had admitted beforehand that the Iron Dome system failed to intercept rockets launched by resistance forces in Gaza.

The US aid will also cover more Israel-US anti-missile projects.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Jerusalemite Child Challenges Soldiers