Arab League condemns Israeli aggression at Al-Aqsa

CAIRO

The Arab League on Monday urged the international community to pressure Israel to halt its "grave violations" against Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In a statement, the league's secretariat-general condemned Israel’s policy of preventing Palestinian Muslims from praying at the site by sealing a gate leading to the Bab al-Rahma Mosque (one of several mosques located in the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex).

“This is a dangerous escalation,” the statement asserted.

On Sunday, Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for Jerusalem’s Religious Endowments Authority (a Jordan-run agency mandated with overseeing the city’s Islamic and Christian holy sites), said Israeli police had banned two religious officials from entering the Al-Aqsa complex.

"Sheikh Abdul Azi Salhab, head of Jerusalem’s Muslim Religious Endowments Council, was banned from entering Al-Aqsa for 40 days," al-Dibs told Anadolu Agency.

Al-Dibs added that Sheikh Najeh Bkerat, deputy director for religious endowments and Al-Aqsa affairs, had also been banned from the flashpoint holy site for a four-month period.

Sunday's bans were announced a week after Israeli police briefly detained both men after raiding their homes in Jerusalem.

Tension has mounted in Jerusalem since late last month, when Israel sealed the mosque compound’s Al-Rahma Gate (located adjacent to the eastern wall of Jerusalem’s Old City), sparking angry demonstrations by Palestinians.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount", claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, in which the Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.