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Al-Aqsa Mosque – Ramadan – Passover – Sacrificial Lamb.
4-12-2023
Why Ramadan has become synonymous with a flashpoint between the Muslim worshippers at Al Aqsa Mosque and Israeli soldiers every year. There is a method to this madness. An important Jewish holiday Passover converges with Islamic Holy month of Ramadan.
Thus, providing the context behind this consistent pattern of attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli government every Ramadan and the reasons behind Israeli government’s controversial actions each year.
First, we need to understand the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. A 14-hectare (35 Acre) complex located in East Jerusalem which houses the third holiest sites in Islamic Faith. The Al-Qibli Mosque, and Dome of the Rock.
The importance of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Islamic history is well known. According to an Islamic faith, Prophet Mohammed PBUH ascended to the seventh heaven from Al Aqsa.
The Jews believe that the compound sits at the Jewish biblical site of the Temple Mount.
The real contentious issue is the far-right Israeli group supported by the Israeli Zionists government and protected by the Israeli military want to demolish the compound and pave way to build the Jewish Temple.
As one of the Passover traditions is to Sacrifice a lamb at the Temple. Although most of the Jews don’t believe in sacrificing the lamb in absence of the Temple.
In an act of defiance many Zionists settlers have tried to take a lamb into the Mosque for a sacrifice.
According to Al Jazeera, “In recent years, large groups of nationalist Jews have regularly visited the site with police escorts, something the Palestinians view as a provocation.
Earlier this week, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir encouraged Jews to visit the site to mark the upcoming Passover holiday, which coincides with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
At the same time, fringe Jewish groups, including the Return to Temple Mount, have offered cash prizes to anyone who goes into Al-Aqsa Mosque and sacrifices a goat – a Jewish religious ritual that is prohibited inside the mosque and that would constitute a further provocation. No sacrifices have been made at the site so far.
On Monday, a leader of one of the groups who was planning a sacrifice in Al-Aqsa was detained by Israeli police.”
The Zionist Israeli government is aware of the outrage and condemnation it will face if any of its settlers were ever to succeed in sacrificing the lamb inside the Mosque during their daily illegal incursions into the Mosque. They realize it will be something that would be beyond their control. However, with each incursion they are trying to test the waters by pushing the boundaries where they hope one day the cost/benefit analysis would be in their favour.
As reported by CBC, “Jordan, whose ruling Hashemite family has custodianship of the Muslim and Christian sites, appoints members of the Waqf institution which oversees the site.”
“Under the longstanding "status quo" arrangement governing the area, which Israel says it maintains, non-Muslims can visit but only Muslims are allowed to worship in the mosque compound.”
However, Israel almost on daily basis violates “status-quo” and escorts Zionists settlers to enter the mosque.
According to Middle East eye, “The controversial incursions have long been a cause of tensions and violence against Palestinians in East Jerusalem and beyond.
To Palestinians, they are viewed as part of a decades-old strategy by the Israeli state and right-wing groups to "Judaise" the city and rid it of its native Islamic and Christian Palestinian heritage.
To far-right Israeli groups, they are the first step to lay the foundation for the destruction of al-Aqsa and replace it with a Third Temple, which they believe will be built atop the mosque.”
These incursions are now daily routine.
“The controversial incursions have long been a cause of tensions and violence against Palestinians in East Jerusalem and beyond.
To Palestinians, they are viewed as part of a decades-old strategy by the Israeli state and right-wing groups to "Judaise" the city and rid it of its native Islamic and Christian Palestinian heritage.
To far-right Israeli groups, they are the first step to lay the foundation for the destruction of al-Aqsa and replace it with a Third Temple, which they believe will be built atop the mosque.
"The Israeli government seems to have made a decision this year to empty Palestinians from al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem,” he said. “They want only Jews in the city. They don't want Palestinians and Muslims here.
Palestinians fear that restrictions on when they can enter and the opening of the site to settlers is laying the groundwork for the mosque to be divided between Muslims and Jews, similar to how the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron was divided in the 1990s.
Violent Israeli assaults on Palestinian worshippers during the month of Ramadan, specifically, have become commonplace.
Last year, over 170 were wounded and more than 300 were arrested during Israeli raids on the mosque across the holy month.
In May 2021, hundreds of Palestinians were injured after Israeli forces stormed the compound and attacked worshippers during Ramadan with tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades.
The raids, as well as Israeli incursions in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, sparked a major Israeli assault on the besieged Gaza Strip.
At least 256 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, including 66 children, while 13 people were killed in Israel.”
If the world is ever to see an end to this brutal, and illegal occupation of Palestinians, and the ruthless subjugation of Palestinians more needs to be done.
The international community needs to do more to stop Israel’s provocation during the month of Ramadan by repeatedly trying to “push the envelope” on behalf of its right-wing Zionists vote bank that is determined to demolish Islam’s third holiest site to build their third Temple.
However, the Zionists Israeli brutal occupation and oppression will continue if the average Muslims around the world keep their heads buried in the sand. Its time for average Muslims, especially those living in the western hemisphere to initiate an organized campaign to highlight the Israeli atrocities and its disastrous ambitions and pressure our political leaders to pressure Zionist Israeli government to step back and let the Palestinian Muslims worship in peace and let go its ambitions to demolish Al Aqsa Mosque.
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