Guarded by occupation forces, Israeli settlers storm al-Aqsa Mosque again

Dozens of extremist Israeli settlers, heavily guarded by the regime’s forces, have once again broken into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds.

The extremist Jewish settlers entered the courtyards of the holy site through the Moroccan Gate, also known as the Mughrabi Gate, under protection and strict security measures of Israeli forces on Sunday morning.

Some of the settlers performed rituals and Talmudic prayers in the mosque’s courtyards, as others received lectures from rabbis about the Temple Mount during their tour at the holy site.

Extremist Israeli officials and settlers regularly storm the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied city, a provocative move that infuriates Palestinians. Such mass settler break-ins almost always take place at the behest of Tel Aviv-backed temple groups and under the auspices of the Israeli police in al-Quds.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits just above the Western Wall plaza, houses both the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Jewish visitation of al-Aqsa is permitted, but as part of a decades-old agreement between Jordan – the custodian of Islamic and Christian sites in al-Quds – and Israel in the wake of Israel’s occupation of East al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.

New Israel law to expel pro-Palestine students

The Israeli media reported on Thursday that the extremist cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was preparing a law to dismiss Israeli Arab students who raised the Palestinian flag or expressed their support for Palestinian resistance inside universities.

According to the daily newspaper Israel Hayom, an extremist Israeli cabinet member from the far-right Otzma Yehudit Party was preparing the legislation, which is currently in its final stages.

“If an Arab student is charged with raising the Palestine flag or supporting the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation, they would be dismissed from their university,” the paper said.

The legislation also called for academic institutions to prevent the existence of student bodies that “violate Israeli laws.”

Heads of Israeli universities strongly criticized the law, stressing, “It is problematic and dangerous.”

They suggested that such a law aims to turn universities into arms for the Israeli police and intelligence services as they would be ordered to monitor thousands of students and punish them over issues protected under the freedom of expression laws.

“It would lead to a wide-scale wave of academic boycotts of Israeli universities,” they added.

Netanyahu’s current Israeli cabinet is the most extremist ever in the occupying regime’s history. Since its formation last year, it has introduced several apartheid laws affecting Arabs in the occupied territories and the Palestinians and encouraged illegal settlement.

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