Jordanian Activists Rally İn Support Of Al-Aqsa

Protesters in both Jordan and Egypt staged demonstrations on Friday to protest stepped-up Israeli restrictions on Muslim worshippers in and around East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.



Hundreds of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups demonstrated in Amman's Al-Hussein and Al-Baq'a Palestinian refugee camps.



Protesters called on the Jordanian government, which administers Jerusalem's holy sites, to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque from Israel's increasingly draconian entry restrictions on Palestinian Muslim worshippers.



Brotherhood leader Mohamed Akl called for resuming "the Palestinian resistance's rocket attacks on the enemy [Israel] in response to the threat to Al-Aqsa."



Protesters also staged demonstrations in support of Al-Aqsa in the cities of Irbid, Jerash and Aqaba.



One day earlier, Israeli authorities sealed access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque before reopening the site again later the same day.



The closure – the first of its kind since 1967, when Israel occupied the city – came after extremist Jewish Rabbi Yehuda Glick was seriously injured in a drive-by shooting in Jerusalem late Wednesday.



The Jordanian government has said that Israel's latest practices in Jerusalem were undermining a treaty it signed with the self-proclaimed Jewish state in 1994, by which Jordan took charge of Jerusalem's holy sites.



Tensions remain high in Jerusalem after Israeli forces killed a young Palestinian man – who had been suspected of shooting the rabbi – in a raid on his East Jerusalem home.



For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.



Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.



In September 2000, a visit to the site by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon sparked what later became known as the "Second Intifada," a popular uprising against the Israeli occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.



By Saddam al-Yahiya



englishnews@aa.com.tr



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