Palestinian Official Calls Israeli Lawmakers’ Access to Temple Mount ‘Zionist ISIS-ism’

A senior Palestinian official accused Netanyahu of “bullying, arrogance, and Zionist ISIS-ism” after the prime minister lifted a ban on Temple Mount visits by Israeli parliamentarians. 

By: United with Israel Staff and Palestinian Media Watch

Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor on religious affairs alleged that the presence of Jewish Israeli Members of Knesset (MK) in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount “defiles” the holy site, and in particular the Al-Aqsa Mosque, reported Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rescinded his previous ban on Israeli MKs visiting the Temple Mount, which had been in place for nearly three years as a precaution against violence, and allowed them to visit once every three months.

According to PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge and Abbas’ advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Netanyahu’s decision is no less than a “war crime” and the presence of Jewish Israeli MKs at “Islamic” holy sites constitutes “defilement.”

“The prime minister of the extremist right in the occupation state [Netanyahu] has committed a complete war crime against the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, and particularly at the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida quoted him as saying earlier this month.

“The prime minister of the occupation state is engaging in bullying, arrogance, and Zionist ISIS-ism against the members of our people and its holy sites,” he further charged.

The “Zionist ISIS-ism” to which Al-Habbash refers are non-existent “break-in campaigns of extremist Jews into the holy sanctuaries in Jerusalem and Hebron,” which he called “defilement” and an “attack on Muslim worshipers, who have the right to manage their holy sites with complete freedom and without the interference of the tyrannical occupation authorities.”

Al-Habbash also claimed that Israel’s “criminal mentality” would “drag the entire region and the world into a religious war whose results will be disaster for everyone.”

Abbas himself stated in 2015 that the PA would not allow Jews’ “filthy feet” to “defile” the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

A similar statement by Abbas in 2014, when he called on Palestinians to “prevent” Jewish “defilement” of the Temple Mount, launched a terror campaign in which 12 Israelis were murdered in the following month.

Jews Have No History in ‘Palestine’

Al-Habbash also continues to repeated the PA’s baseless claim that Israelis and Jews have no history in “Palestine” and no connection to its holy sites.

“The occupation state is attempting to invest efforts through all its branches – the security, political, and religious branches – in order to establish a false racist reality at the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Palestine, but this is in vain because their false narrative lacks historical, heritage, and cultural facts in Palestine,” he illogically charged.

In addition to anti-Semitic statements regarding Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, PA leaders also repeat the libel that it is Israel’s intention to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to clear the way for building “the alleged Temple.”

PA Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Supreme Fatwa Council Chairman Muhammad Hussein similarly claimed this month that “the occupation authorities are pretending to search for the foundations of their alleged Temple,” maintaining that this is “dangerous for the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”