Abbas: Closure of Aqsa 'declaration of war'

[Jefferson23]

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- Israel's closure of the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to all visitors following the shooting of a Jewish hardliner is tantamount to a "declaration of war," President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday.

"This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina quoted him as saying.

"We hold the Israeli government responsible for this dangerous escalation in Jerusalem that has reached its peak through the closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque this morning," he added.

Abu Rdeina added, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, that Abbas confirmed that “Jerusalem and its holy Muslim and Christian places are a red line and we won’t accept any harm to them.”

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=736338

[King_David]

1. 'declaration of war'. ?

That was closure of the Straights of Tiran.

This is a mosque.

[Mosby]

3. who's going to wage war anyway?

Not the failed state of "Palestine". I think the Iraqis are kinda busy, same with the Egyptians, Syrians and Lebanese. Maybe the Jordanians can wage war for abbas, or someone, anyone else other than the Palestinians.

[Jefferson23]

2. Palestinian President Abbas denounces Israel's closure of East Jerusalem mosque as

'tantamount to a declaration of war'

Israeli police shut access to the whole of the Al-Aqsa compound, also known as the Temple Mount, to all visitors following the shooting of far-right Jewish activist Yehuda Glick on Wednesday.

A 32-year-old Palestinian man suspected of being responsible for the shooting has today been shot dead by Israeli police, leading to clashes in the area.

US-born activist Glick has led a campaign for Jewish people to be allowed to pray at the mosque compound, which is the third-holiest shrine in Islam and the holiest place in Judaism.

He was shot as he left a conference at the Menachem Begin Heritage Centre in Jerusalem late on Wednesday.

snip* Galib Abu Nejmeh, 65, told Reuters: "It is not a good situation, it is the worst, everyone is angry."

"It is becoming like another Intifada," he said, comparing it to the scenes in East Jerusalem in the late 1980s.

East Jerusalem has been the scene of increased tensions in recent months, particularly in the area of Silwan, which sits in the shadow of the Old City and Al-Aqsa.

Jewish settler organisations have acquired more than two dozen buildings in Silwan over the years, including nine in the past three months, and moved settler families into them.

Roughly 500 settlers now live among approximately 40,000 Palestinians residents.

That process, combined with the tensions over Al -Aqsa and the Temple Mount, have led to the most-fractious atmosphere in East Jerusalem in more than a decade, according to locals - since the second Intifada or uprising that began in 2000.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palestinian-president-mahmoud-abbas-denounces-israels-closure-of-east-jerusalem-mosque-as-tantamount-to-a-declaration-of-war-9828117.html

[sabbat hunter]

4. according to cnn.com

Israel has announced that it will in fact re-open the temple mount to Palestinian men over the age of 50 and all Palestinian women

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/30/world/meast/temple-mount/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

[Jefferson23]

5. That's the first I've heard..thank you. n/t