The Supreme Mufti of the Palestinian Authority told a news conference to mark the 47th anniversary of an arson attempt at the Al-Aqsa mosque that the Arabs would gather to defend the holy site.
Sheikh Muhammad Hussein accused Israel of trying to clean Jerusalem of all expression of Islamic and Arabic culture but "not just the Al-Aqsa mosque and its domes express the Islamic character of the place, but all the floors of the holy city, every remant of the city, and every centimeter attests to the city being Arabic and Islamic, whose roots are planted deep in history and culture.