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Israel: occupation regime starts to build elevator easing access to Western Wall

September 23, 2024 at 5:20 pm

Jews pray in front of the Western (Al-Buraq) Wall during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot in Old City of Jerusalem on October 02, 2023 [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]

The Israeli occupation regime has started to build an elevator to ease access for Jewish visitors to the Western Wall of the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa in occupied Jerusalem. Palestinians call it the Buraq Wall, and have raised concerns that easier access will make it easier for more settlers to conduct their now frequent incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The occupation regime claims that the elevator will assist disabled and elderly Jews to go to the plaza in front of the Western Wall. According to a report by the official Palestinian Authority news agency, Wafa, the occupation authorities have been working for months to change the status quo in the area around Al-Aqsa Mosque under the pretext of carrying out maintenance or otherwise routine work.

Surveillance cameras and other such devices have been installed on high points overlooking the Noble Sanctuary, for example, and buildings on the approaches to the Buraq Wall have been demolished to accommodate even larger crowds of Jewish visitors and settlers.

The Judaisation of occupied Jerusalem has been ongoing for many years, and include Jewish settlers insisting that they have a right to prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque. Plans have been mooted to divide the mosque spatially and temporally to allow this to happen, despite objections by the mosque authorities under the control of the Ministry of Religious Endowments in Jordan. Such a division has been imposed at the Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron, where Palestinian Muslim worshippers now have limited access to the mosque. An elevator has been installed there as well to facilitate settler incursions.

“All of the occupation regime’s actions are completely rejected and condemned,” insisted Adnan Al-Husseini, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and head of the Jerusalem Affairs Department. “Everything it does falls within the context of Judaising the city, destroying its cultural and historical appearance, changing the city’s Arab features, and facilitating the access of settlers to Al-Aqsa Mosque, as happened at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron to facilitate the settlers’ incursions.”

All of Israel’s settlers and the settlements in which they live are illegal under international law. The International Court of Justice ruled in July that Israel’s occupation is illegal and the UN General Assembly voted overwhelming earlier this month to demand that Israel should end its occupation within twelve months.

READ: Israel prevents diplomat mission entering Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron