League of Arab States condemns storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by over 1,300 Israeli settlers, warns of escalating attempts to alter its historical and legal status

The General Secretariat of the League of Arab States condemns in the strongest terms the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by more than 1,300 Israeli settlers on the fifth day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, as part of the ongoing escalation in occupied Jerusalem.

The incursions have been accompanied by the public performance of religious rituals and prayers inside the Mosque’s courtyards under the protection of the Israeli occupation police, alongside restrictions imposed on Palestinian worshippers and obstruction of their access to the Mosque.

The General Secretariat affirms that the widening scale and repeated nature of these incursions, together with practices aimed at imposing religious rituals inside the Mosque, constitute a flagrant assault on its sanctity and a systematic attempt to alter the existing historical and legal status quo and impose a new reality paving the way for its temporal and spatial division.

It holds the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for this escalation and its repercussions for security and stability in the region.

The General Secretariat rejects the provocative statements by the Israeli Minister of National Security concerning occupied Jerusalem, stressing that Israeli claims of sovereignty over the city and its holy sites do not alter its legal status as occupied territory, nor do they diminish the established Palestinian rights therein.

It emphasises that such statements together with the escalation in incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque point to an effort to impose Israeli control over the holy sites and undermine the existing historical and legal status quo, warning of the dangers posed by inciting rhetoric and the attacks and violations it encourages.

The General Secretariat calls on the international community, particularly the United Nations Security Council, to take immediate and practical measures to halt these assaults, ensure freedom of worship and access for worshippers to Al-Aqsa Mosque, protect the holy sites, and hold those responsible for violations accountable.

It stresses the need to move beyond statements of condemnation towards effective action to halt these violations.

The General Secretariat reiterates the League of Arab States’ steadfast position in support of the resilience of the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem and its rejection of all attempts to alter the city’s Arab-Palestinian character.

It asserts that East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967 and the capital of the State of Palestine.