Member of the Executive Committee of the PLO Dr. Hanan Ashrawi condemned the practices and violations of the occupation state in Jerusalem, including the systematic escalation of the policy of deportation from Al-Aqsa Mosque during the last week and depriving the Palestinian people of their natural and guaranteed right to freedom of worship and access To holy places and perform religious rituals.
In a statement on Sunday, she pointed to the decision of the occupation authorities to extend the ban on the entry of the preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, to the mosque for a period of 4 months, in addition to issuing blocking orders to the director of the Al-Asir Club in Jerusalem, Nasser arc, member of the Legislative Council, Jihad Abu Zneid, and Sheikh Abdullah Alqam, Secretary General of the Jerusalem and Palestine clans, and the leader of the Fatah movement, Hamdi Diab, deny the five women who are the Jerusalemite journalist, the journalist Sundus Aweis, Hanadi Halawani, Khadija Khweis, Raeda Saeed and Madeleine Issa from reaching the mosque and praying in it.
She pointed out that the occupation authorities stepped up their violations of freedom of worship during the month of May, as 24 decisions were issued against Jerusalemites, including 20 decisions to remove from the Aqsa Mosque, while the call to prayer was banned in the same month 54 times in the Ibrahimi Mosque, in addition to the repeated attacks by extremist settlers on Mosques and churches.
She said: "The occupying state intends to fan religious war, strife and sectarian strife by provoking the feelings of Muslims and Christians, and assaulting their right to reach their holy sites in flagrant violation of international laws and treaties in this regard."
She affirmed that freedom of worship is a basic human right, and is guaranteed by all international laws and laws. She said: “The occupation authorities’ continued oppressive exercise in the Holy City and its removal of Palestinian citizens, including national and religious leaders, women, children, journalists, and endowment employees, from Al-Aqsa Mosque, attack and arrest them It comes within the framework of the plans of the occupation state to Judaize Jerusalem, falsify its character and identity, erase the Palestinian presence in it, isolate it from its surroundings, impose spatial and temporal division in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and normalize its permissibility by extremist settlers. "
She stressed that the occupation state’s policies, procedures, and legislation expose his false claim that it maintains freedom of worship for all religions. Since its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, Israel systematically prevented Muslim and Christian Palestinian citizens from accessing holy places of worship in Jerusalem.
In this regard, she added: "The open support from the American administration contributed directly to giving Israel a hand and giving it cover to continue its attacks on religious sanctities, including its illegal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the transfer of the American embassy to the occupied city."
Ashrawi ended her statement by saying: "If the international community, with its bodies and institutions, respects its powers, obligations, laws and legislations, it must intervene to deter Israel and put an end to its policies based on violating freedom of worship, religious fanaticism, exclusion and rejecting the other."
