Israelis

Israeli raids at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound have intensified during the Jewish holiday season.

Hundreds of Israelis have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on the fifth day of Sukkot, a Jewish holiday.

While Israelis performed Jewish religious rituals and sang in violation of the status quo at the compound on Wednesday, Israeli restrictions on the entry of Palestinian Muslims continued, Palestine’s Wafa news agency reported, citing the Jerusalem governorate.

Jerusalem’s Islamic Waqf Department reported that about 700 Israelis, including former lawmaker Moshe Feiglin, stormed the compound under the protection of Israeli police.

The historical status quo stipulates that the waqf department has exclusive responsibility for administering the compound, also known as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, by Muslims, and as the Temple Mount by Jews, as a place of worship exclusively for Muslims.

The Jerusalem governorate said Israeli authorities closed the road leading to the Lions’ Gate area, as well as the entrance to al-Turba Road leading to the town of Silwan, to ease Israelis’ access to the Western Wall.

Israelis have stormed the Al-Aqsa compound regularly since the start of the Jewish holidays earlier this month. On Tuesday, 966 Israelis entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate alongside Israeli police, performing Talmudic rituals and singing together in the mosque’s courtyards.

The holidays began with the Jewish New Year on September 12 and 13, followed by Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, on the 21st and the 22nd. Sukkot runs from September 26 to October 2, after which Simchat Torah, marking the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, will be celebrated on October 3.

Israel’s national security minister declares ‘we are the owners of the place in Al-Aqsa’ during heavily guarded incursion.

Hundreds of Israelis led by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound under police protection.

The Jerusalem governorate on Monday said Israeli forces closed intersections and streets surrounding the Old City that lead to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which Jews refer to as the Temple Mount, in occupied East Jerusalem on the third day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

It said the Israelis danced in circles and sang inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque during the raid, noting that 900 people entered the compound in the morning.

“We are the owners of the place in Al-Aqsa and in the prisons, and we have turned the lives of terrorist prisoners into hell,” Ben-Gvir said.

“The people of Israel are on the path to absolute victory, and today we pray in Al-Aqsa, which is the most important place for the Jewish people.”

Monday’s intrusion came as Israeli authorities forced dozens of Palestinian shopkeepers to close their businesses and residents to remain inside their homes in areas near the mosque to allow Jewish prayers during Sukkot.

“Dozens of Palestinian owners of shops, cafes and restaurants in the Cotton Merchants Market in Jerusalem’s Old City were forced to close them during the Jewish Sukkot holiday to make way for Jewish prayers in the market,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said in a statement.

‘Playing with fire’

Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh described the incursion as “playing with fire and a dangerous provocation to the feelings of Muslims around the world”.

He also warned that Israel was seeking to ignite a “religious war” in the region.

Since 2003, Israeli police have allowed groups of Israelis to make daily incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, except on Fridays and Saturdays.

Israel often imposes restrictions on Palestinian worshippers. It prevented Eid al-Fitr prayers at Al-Aqsa this year, allowing only 10,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, home to 3.3 million people, into one of Islam’s holiest sites for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan.

LONDON: Prominent Israeli figures have welcomed British sanctions against illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, The Guardian reported.

In a joint statement, they described the move as an “inevitable consequence” of their government’s actions.

Sanctions are being imposed “against Jewish terrorists, and not against the legitimacy of the state of Israel,” they said.

“There is no basis to the government’s response that the decision to impose sanctions against Jewish terrorists is an expression of antisemitism.”

Prof. David Harel, British-born president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a signatory to the statement, said the measures delivered urgently needed support for liberal Israelis who are trying to stop attacks on Palestinians and end the occupation.

“I personally would fight until my last breath against antisemitism and against anti-Israelism,” he told The Guardian. “But what is justified, and I do support, is being anti things that Israel is doing, and these days in particular what it is doing in the West Bank.

“Getting out of there (occupied Palestine), or, at least for the present, stopping these things from happening and starting to really talk about a two-state solution is not only good for the Palestinians. It’s not that we’re doing these poor people a favour. We’re doing a favour to ourselves, no less, maybe even more.”

Signatories to the statement include former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert; former commander of the Israeli military Dan Halutz; former ministers Yuli Tamir and Roni Bar-On; and former Ambassador to Germany Yoram Ben Zeev.

They wrote: “This decision is precisely what the state of Israel should have received in order to remove the disgrace of Jewish terrorism from the face of the country.”

Former diplomat Nadav Tamir also said the sanctions are good for Israel. “Any move to prevent annexation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the West Bank (and Gaza) is serving the long-term interests of the Zionist vision of Israel as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people,” he added. “It will help us to be more secure and moral.”

Avraham Burg, a former parliament speaker, said “like many Israelis and Palestinians, I am grateful for the courageous moral leadership” of UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband. “It’s a good beginning. Do not stop.”

Fourteen Israeli human rights organizations — including B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Breaking the Silence — welcomed the sanctions.

“This is an important and necessary first step to meet states’ legal obligation,” they said in a statement. “We urge the international community to take further concrete measures to ensure that its relations with Israel no longer enable Israel’s settlement enterprise, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank, or its broader assault on Palestinian human rights across all territories under its control.”