Israel banned on Sunday two top religious officials from entering East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to a Palestinian official on Sunday
Israeli authorities handed out Chairman of Awqaf Council in Jerusalem Sheikh Abdul-Azim Salhab an order banning him from entering Aqsa Mosque for 40 days.
Sheikh Najeh Bkerat, the deputy director of Muslim Endowments and Al-Aqsa Affairs, was also banned from the holy site for four months.
Israeli police also banned a mosque guard, Arafat Najib, from entering the holy site for a six-month period.
Sunday’s ban came one week after Israeli police briefly arrested Salhab and Bkerat in raids on their homes in Jerusalem.
Tension has mounted in Jerusalem last week in the wake of Israel’s closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque’s Rahma Gate on the eastern wall of Jerusalem’s Old City, triggering angry Palestinian protests.
Jordan's Minister for Religious Affairs Abdel Nasser Abu-Bassal accused Israel of "a new escalation aimed at impeding Waqf's work in Jerusalem and intimidating its members". Jordan is in charge of Awqaf Council but is in ongoing disputes with Israel regarding powers.
Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in the Palestinian authority Yousef Adais denounced the occupation authorities' ban saying that the current condition in Jerusalem and the conspiracies might be the most dangerous since its occupation in 1967.
Further, Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive committee Saeb Erekat called on the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take quick procedures in order to follow up the situation namely in Aqsa Mosque and to take necessary political acts with the international community before the occupation policies lead to an explosion.
In an urgent official letter to Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and OIC Secretary General Dr. Yusuf Bin Ahmed Al Uthaymeen, Erekat said that the occupation authority procedures are a violation of the status quo and the occupation is obviously attempting to change the reality in the city and impose a new one.
