"Israel" Crosses All Red Lines: Candidate Calls for Blowing Al-Aqsa Dome

Local Editor

An "Israeli" candidate running in this week's general election has sparked outrage by calling for blowing up al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, to rebuild the alleged Temple of Solomon.
"This is a serious challenge and a fundamental provocative call to the entire Muslim world," Sheikh Yousuf Dowais, chairman of the Palestinian Higher Shariah Judicial Council, said in a statement cited by the Gulf News on Sunday.
He further confirmed that "the Dome of the Rock and the entire al-Aqsa Compound [al-Haram al-Sharif] are greater, bigger and purer than being used to make political and electoral gains."
This comes hours before the "Israeli" voters are going to polling stations on Tuesday, January 22, to elect a new parliament.
Three days before the vote, a video of Jeremy Gimpel, a member of the far-right Habayit Hayehudi [Jewish Home] party emerged, calling for the demolishing of al-Aqsa Mosque.

Speaking at the Fellowship Church in Florida, Gimpel, an ordained rabbi, asked what would happen if al-Aqsa Mosque is blown up.
"Imagine if the Golden Dome - I'm being recorded so I can't say ‘blown up' - but let's say the Dome was blown up, right? And we laid the cornerstone of the Temple in "Jerusalem"," he told the audience.
"Can you imagine? None of you would be here. All of you would be like, ‘I'm going to Israel, right?' No one would be here, it would be incredible."

Al-Aqsa is the Muslims' first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after the holy Kabah in Makkah and Prophet Mohammad's Mosque in Madinah, KSA.
"Israelis" claim that their alleged Temple of Solomon exists underneath the Muslim holy place and want to destroy it to build their temple.

In response, Dowais condemned the demolition call as part of "Israel's" systematic aggression on holy places in the occupied Palestinian lands.
"The "Israeli" occupation is waging an unprecedented attack against the holiest Islamic and Christian sites in the holy land," Dowais, who is also the head of the Palestinian Shariah Higher Court, said.

"Saving [Occupied] al-Quds is a basic religious duty of every Arab and Muslim in the world," Dowais said, and confirmed that "it is time for Arabs and Muslims to act in protection of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Compound."

Similarly, Palestinian minister of religious affairs Ismail Radwan strongly denounced the "Israeli" remarks.
"We are deeply and seriously concerned about such incitement because it heralds a plan and a hostile intent against al-Aqsa Mosque," Radwan stated.

For his part, the Islamic Jihad Movement leader Sheikh Khodr Habib warned that by threatening the Dome of the Rock, "Israel" crossed all red lines.
"The Islamic holy sites must be protected and the Zionist distortion and fraud must end," he added.

Source: News agencies, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org