40 Islamic institutions call to unify Friday sermon ahead of Israel’s Flag March

Some 40 Islamic institutions, associations and bodies yesterday called for today’s Friday sermon to be unified across the Muslim world to highlight the dangers of Israel’s planned Flag March which is due to take place on Sunday.

The Islamic institutions signed a joint statement ahead of the controversial march which marks Israel’s capture of the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967.

“The Flag March and [settlers’] insistence to hold it in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and Damascus Gate is a very dangerous crime, and an aggressive step intended to insult the entire [Islamic] nation, and threatens to explode the situation in Jerusalem, Palestine and beyond,” the statement said.

The scholars saluted the Palestinian resistance factions, and valued their “firm position and clear declaration that the Flag March’s route … is a declaration of war.”

READ: Israeli commanders warn of repercussions of the Flag March

They stressed that the Islamic nation must rally around the Palestinian resistance, support it in its war with Israel and in defence of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On 18 May Israeli Minister of Public Security, Omer Bar Lev, accepted the police’s recommendation to hold the controversial annual march along the prescribed route from West Jerusalem through occupied Damascus Gate and the Old City and into the Western Wall (Buraq Wall).

The Flag March sees far-right Israeli ultra-nationalists flooding through Muslim areas celebrating the capture of East Jerusalem by Zionist occupation forces following a second wave of ethnic cleansing in 1967. Chanting “death to Arabs” and singing racist and highly offensive songs, thousands are seen parading through Muslim areas flying the Israeli flag.