Baghdad - INA
Arab Parliament Speaker Mohammed bin Ahmed Al-Yamahi condemned on Wednesday the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli settlers and ministers, stressing that these violations represent a systematic attempt to change the historical and legal status quo of the mosque and obliterate its Islamic identity.
In a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (WAA), the Arab Parliament said: "Arab Parliament Speaker Mohammed bin Ahmed Al-Yamahi condemned in the strongest terms the inflammatory and racist statements made by the extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich regarding the demolition of the Khan al-Ahmar community east of Jerusalem."
The statement added that "these practices reflect a systematic strategy led by the Israeli government, aimed at undermining the Palestinian presence politically, geographically, and legally, and proceeding with the annexation project, displacing Palestinians and uprooting them from their land, with the goal of eliminating any possibility of establishing an independent and sovereign Palestinian state." The Speaker of the Arab Parliament, according to the statement, warned against "the continued provocative and repeated incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by ministers of the occupying entity and extremist settlers," stressing that "these violations represent a systematic attempt to alter the historical and legal status quo of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, impose a temporal and spatial division upon it, and obliterate its Islamic identity. This threatens to ignite tensions in the region and lead to further instability." He emphasized that "the occupying entity's government acts as if it is above international law, exploiting international silence regarding its daily crimes against the Palestinian people and their holy sites. This has emboldened it to persist in its policies of settlement expansion, annexation, Judaization, and unprecedented defiance of international law."
He added, "The Israeli occupation authorities' approval of a settlement plan to transform the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)—which they forcibly seized in Jerusalem—into a so-called museum and headquarters for the 'Israeli Ministry of Defense' constitutes a new crime aimed at eliminating the Palestinian presence and obliterating the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem. This is a blatant violation of international law and all UN resolutions, and a dangerous escalation that seeks to transform a UN facility, enjoying international immunities and privileges, into an Israeli military and security installation."
He emphasized that "targeting UNRWA headquarters reveals the occupation entity's determination to liquidate the Palestinian refugee issue and eliminate any international or humanitarian support for the Palestinian people. This is part of a systematic plan to impose a fait accompli through military force and settlement expansion. These practices are an extension of the crimes of genocide, displacement, and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the occupation entity against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem."
He pointed out that “the Speaker of the Arab Parliament called on the international community, the Security Council, the United Nations, international parliaments, UNESCO, and international human rights institutions to assume their legal and moral responsibilities towards what the city of Jerusalem is being subjected to in terms of Judaization projects and the systematic targeting of its historical landmarks, international institutions, and Islamic and Christian holy sites, and to take immediate action to stop these crimes and violations, and to impose deterrent sanctions on the occupying entity and its leaders.”
