Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech this week that the Palestinians would not allow Jews to desecrate the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem with their “filthy feet,” Palestinian Media Watch reported yesterday.
Yesterday, Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas described Jews on the Temple Mount as “filth”:
“The Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is ours… and they have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem.”
In his speech, parts of which were broadcast on official PA TV and posted on his personal website, Abbas also glorified Palestinians fighting against Israel in Jerusalem who are killed in the fighting. Abbas promised that Allah will reward those who “will not allow” Jews to “defile” Jerusalem.
A video of the speech is embedded below.
Abbas’ speech came in the wake of Palestinian rioting earlier this week on the Temple Mount, including during the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. According to The Jerusalem Post, the violence intensified after Israeli officials banned the presence of “the Murabitun and Murabatat male and female Islamist activist groups, which gather on the Temple Mount to intimidate and shout at Jewish visitors on a daily basis.” On a tour of the Temple Mount last month, a congressional delegation including Reps. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Keith Rothfus (R-Pa.), and Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.) witnessed a group of Jewish visitors to the holy site being accosted by the groups.
Members of religion of peace resting in a mosque on Temple Mount between hurling rocks at Jews on religious holiday. pic.twitter.com/1wiIeTJUYz
— RICHARD KEMP (@COLRICHARDKEMP) September 15, 2015
Access to the Temple Mount was restricted today and the Knesset authorized the deployment of 800 additional Border Patrol troops to Jerusalem amid Palestinian calls for a “day of rage.”
[Photo: wochit News / YouTube ]