Preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, said the mosque is too holy to be subjected to the Israeli occupation’s decisions, referring to statements by Israel’s extremist National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, who called for changing the status quo at the Muslim holy site.
Sheikh Sabri considered the statements and procedures “unacceptable”, stressing that any change to the status quo is rejected by all Muslims and is an interference in the mosque’s management; such efforts are invalid and doomed to failure.
“It is not permissible to harm the sanctity of Al-Aqsa or the status quo therein,” he said, reiterating his refusal to allow the Al-Aqsa Mosque to become a military barracks by increasing the number of Israeli forces around it, stressing that the mosque is a place of worship, and the Israeli forces’ presence is an interference in its administration.
He warned that the Israeli occupation is seeking to impose control and sovereignty over Al-Aqsa.
Ben-Gvir recently said that he had prepared an integrated plan to impose new restrictions on Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, which would lead to changing the “status quo” there.
The plan requires the national security ministry to expand the use of technological means at the mosque’s entrances and to take measures to strengthen Israeli “control” over the mosque.
Read: Israel to indict Preacher of Jerusalem Al-Aqsa Mosque
