Sheik Ekrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem, claimed that Israel and “extremist" organizations are exploiting Israel's Independence Day to "harm" the Al-Aqsa Mosque and impose a new reality on the Temple Mount.
In an interview with the Palestinian Authority news website Safa News Agency, Sabri described Jewish visits to the Temple Mount on Independence Day as a “storming of the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque" and a desecration of the mosque’s sanctity through religious rituals, bowing, dancing, and the waving of Israeli flags.
Sabri said that Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism, constitute “harm and provocation against the feelings of Muslims and the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque." In this context, he stressed that none of the measures Israel takes at the site will grant it any rights there, because, according to him, Muslims possess an eternal right to Al-Aqsa Mosque granted by the Creator of the world.
According to Sabri, there has recently been an unprecedented increase in the “incitement" of Temple Mount activist groups against Al-Aqsa Mosque, including claims about intentions to destroy the Dome of the Rock in order to rebuild the Jewish Temple on its ruins. Sabri accused the Israeli government of supporting and publicly encouraging these groups so they can carry out their plans against Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Jerusalem district of the Palestinian Authority said in an official statement that during Independence Day, 508 Jews-described as “colonialists"-visited the Temple Mount and conducted what it called “provocative" religious rituals near the Gate of Mercy and the Dome of the Rock.
The statement accused the Israeli government of seeking to erase Islamic sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of a deliberate policy aimed at “Judaizing" the site and imposing the Zionist narrative by allowing Jews to visit their holiest site.