Al-Azhar warned the entire world of a Zionist plan being implemented on the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank to “seize its ownership, Judaize its landmarks, kill its Palestinian owners and citizens, and commit a new genocide. This crime is taking place in the light of the brutality of this Zionist entity, unprecedented international complicity and impotence, and global preoccupation with the daily massacres taking place in the glorious land of Gaza. There, the enemy is reassured that no one would move a finger to confront what is going on there.”
Al-Azhar also warned of the danger of this violation of the security and stability of the region, and called on the human community and all active parties to assume their responsibilities toward the massacres committed by the “Zionist killing machine.”
“These massacres against the people of the Gaza Strip are tragic and painful, not to mention the crimes they are about to commit in the West Bank. Al-Azhar also underscores the need to exert all efforts to stop the unscrupulous Zionist plans aimed at taking lives, stealing land, and falsifying history. It is as if today’s world is governed by the law of the jungle.”
Al-Azhar further called on the Muslim world to “harness all political, diplomatic and popular resources and reinforce the boycott of Zionist products, toward protecting Palestinian lives, the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the noble city of Jerusalem, to repel the aggression against our brethren in Palestine, and let everyone know that this enemy was planted in our lands not to live with us in peace — as they allege — but to devour the Arab body piecemeal if possible, knowing that history and reality are the best witnesses to this fact.”
Al-Azhar also has strongly condemned Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s statement that he would build a synagogue at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound if he could.
Al-Aqsa compound is Islam’s third holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian national identity, but it is also Judaism’s holiest place, revered as the site of the second temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
“If I could do anything I wanted, I would put an Israeli flag on the site,” Ben Gvir said in an interview.
Asked several times by the journalist if he would build a synagogue at the site if it were up to him, Ben Gvir finally replied: “Yes.”
Al-Azhar said in a press note that these “provocative statements are issued only by persons with an extremist mentality that does not respect religions, the sanctities of others, or international laws and conventions.”
The statement continued it “reminds the whole world that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its courtyards, precincts, and all its areas, has been and shall always be purely Islamic and a historical right for Muslims.”
It is “Islamic in origin, and it is the first of the two Qiblahs (direction of prayer) and the third of the two holy mosques; It will remain as such despite the criminal Zionist plans to Judaize the historical landmarks of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the city of Jerusalem,” the statement said.
In closing, it added: “Al-Azhar calls on the governments of the Muslim world to take serious and strict positions against these irresponsible and repeated statements by this Zionist official and other extremists who have become accustomed to storming the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and inciting violence and terrorism against innocent Palestinians.”
