MCE Condemns Israeli Storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Muslim Council of Elders, under the chairmanship of His Eminence Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, condemns the ongoing Israeli incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the latest of which involved the storming of the mosque by a minister in the Israeli government along with members of the Knesset, and other today, under the protection of the Israeli police.

The Council expresses its strong condemnation of the "Flag March" in the occupied city of Jerusalem and the accompanying aggression against Palestinians to go with the extremist and racist practices, and the imposition of restrictions on the access of worshippers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as the restriction of movement for worshippers in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.

The Muslim Council of Elders calls on the international community to urgently compel Israel to cease all forms of aggression against the Palestinian people and their Islamic and Christian holy sites and to respect the legal status of the city of Jerusalem by halting all illegal and illegitimate measures by the occupation authorities, including attempts to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque spatially and temporally. 

The Council affirms that the entire area of Al-Aqsa Mosque, covering 144 dunams, is an exclusive Muslim place of worship.

The Muslim Council of Elders reiterates its call for intensified international efforts to immediately stop the aggression on the Gaza Strip and to allow the entry of humanitarian and relief aid as well as acknowledging the Palestinian people's right to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, in order to end the decades-long suffering of the Palestinian people.