Israel seeks full sovereignty over al-Aqsa: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jamal Joumah, head of the "Stop the Wall" Campaign in Ramallah, to discuss the recent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians at al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Well another country which seems to have impunity in the international community although several countries and international organizations have actually warned about the negative consequences of all these acts of aggression by Israel, still Israel continues with its provocations?

Joumah: It seems the only one that that did not hear this warning is the Israeli … [regime] and it seems that they meant it. They want to escalate in al-Aqsa, they are using the current situation either the Palestinians or the Arab world or the Muslim situation or even the international [community], particularly the US was not used to keep silent about what was going on as well as in Europe to continue the escalation in al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel wants to have the upper hand. They want to have the full sovereignty on al-Aqsa Mosque. They want to be the one who is controlling everything in al-Aqsa and they turned it into a battlefield. Thanks for all the worshippers or the Jerusalemites or the people who are staying in al-Aqsa day and night defending it, it seems to have been left to its destiny by the Arab world and by the Islamic world, left al-Aqsa and Jerusalem to its destiny but we are gambling just on the power of the people inside Jerusalem.

Clearly that this continues this way, it going to lead to an explosion. It cannot continue a situation like this. It is humiliating, it is humiliating to all of us, to the Palestinians, to the Arab countries, to the Islamic world, doing what they are doing in al-Aqsa that never been done like this, should not continue and it will not continue.

Press TV: Well we have already heard that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he will do whatever it takes within his power not to change the status quo of the al-Aqsa Mosque. Do you think we can trust him at this point?

Joumah: Well Netanyahu is a big liar and he is always trying to sell words like lip services but the reality on the ground that we are seeing it every day from early morning at 7 o’clock with his troops, his police, his settlers by his orders they are getting into al-Aqsa. They are destroying historical gates, historical windows, threatening more than any time before the existence of the mosque itself and what efforts he is doing? He is just giving much more orders in order to invade more and to raid al-Aqsa Mosque.

Netanyahu cannot be trusted in any way and I do not think that anybody can buy all these promises that he is giving, including the Palestinian Authority, including the Jordanians, including the Arab world which is supposed to take a step, a major step towards stopping this not just rely on the promises of Netanyahu.  

Press TV: Al-Aqsa is in fact a red line for Palestinians and as you said for the Muslim world itself. Do you think we will see the Muslim community standing up to these aggressions against this holy site – the third holy site for Muslims?  

Joumah: It is so weird and sad and strange the silence, the silence of the death that comes from the Arab world and the Islamic world. It is not the red line, never. It does not seem that it is a red line. If it is a red line, what do they want more provocations than what happened in al-Aqsa?

It is a red line for the Palestinians, for particularly the people of Jerusalem. They are the only one who is moving, only one who is standing with their bodies confronting this and trying to stop it and they are still steadfast in al-Aqsa. They are still defending it but I did not see any hope from the Arab world neither any Palestinian in Jerusalem is seeing any hope in the Arab and the Islamic world and it is so clear now it is not a red line as they are saying all the time and they are selling us these kinds of statements. It is not. If it is, if they are feeling that they have been humiliated by what Israel is doing, they would move and they have lots of things to do. They cannot say that they can do anything; they can do a lot of things.  

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