Israel seeks to divide al-Asqa Mosque: Academic

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hani al-Basoos, professor at the Islamic University of Gaza in the Gaza Strip, to discuss the recent clashes between Israeli police and a group of Palestinian worshipers after the regime’s forces stormed the holy al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds (Jerusalem).

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: We know these incursions take place time and again and in particular it appears first of all interesting that it is always Jewish extremists that are accompanied by the Israeli soldiers but it appears they want to provoke Palestinians which is their right to actually have this as a place of worship but yet they are going there and they obviously do what they have done. Why do you think Israel repeats this act?

Basoos: I think Israel and its settlers repeat this again and again because they want to divide the mosque between Jews and Muslims. They want to have days for Muslims and days for Jews to pray in al-Aqsa Mosque. Many of the Jewish community believe that this mosque supposed to be a synagogue for the Jewish community not for the Muslim community and this is why they have done this many times, attacking the mosque and attacking the Palestinian prayers and what happened this morning is not something detached from the general circumstances.

This has happened many times in the past and still continues where we have witnessed many Israeli settlers backed by the Israeli soldiers coming to al-Aqsa Mosque and beating some Palestinians, arresting some of them and shooting even wounding many Palestinian civilians. These attempts have the purpose of trying to force the Palestinian people to accept a new fact that this mosque is not only for the Muslims, this mosque is for Muslims and for Jews like what happened a few years in Jericho where they divided the Ibrahimi Mosque into days and hours for Muslims and hours for Jewish community.

The full intention today is as a first step to divide the al-Aqsa Mosque partially between Muslims and Jewish community and then eventually they would like to convert the whole mosque into synagogue. This is something we have not seen yet but the steps we have witnessed for the past few years showing that this is a possibility that they would like to overcome the Muslim community, they want to take over this holy shrine. And these steps and these confrontations, these kind of violent activities by the Israeli soldiers, we cannot explain them in another way. The only way we can explain them is the purpose behind all these activities is to evacuate the mosque from the Muslims and to give the chance for the settlers and for the Jewish prayers to come to the mosque and pray and use the time, use the place and use all the facilities for the Jewish community.

We understand how important this mosque is for the Muslims not only in Palestine but in the world. The al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the holiest mosques in the world in which I think the Muslim community concerns so much about it like today we talked about the Palestinians in Jerusalem and in the mosque itself trying to defend it. So I think the Israeli side would want to end such important and holy things for the Muslim community in this mosque and want to change it to become a synagogue with the time coming [and] passing because we have not seen much being done by the Palestinian Authority, by the international community concerning this holy shrine.

We Palestinians have limited access. We will not be able to go and pray freely from Gaza, from the West Bank, from Palestine, from outside community. We do not have the freedom and access to be able to move and pray and leave because the checkpoints, because of the restrictions, because of the attacks on Palestinian prayers making it difficult for the Muslims to be able to access that mosque and at the same time to give the full priority and full chance for the Jewish community and the settlers from the West Bank and from Jerusalem to be able to enter the al-Aqsa Mosque and leave any time they want, giving them the space of time, giving them the space of the place itself to be able to pray and to take over step by step this holy mosque.  

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