Algeria condemns recent Israeli violations against Muslim worshippers in Jerusalem
Spokesman for Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdel Aziz bin Ali al Sherif strongly condemned on Saturday Israel’s serious violations against Muslim worshippers in Jerusalem on Friday, calling on the international community to promptly move to put a stop to these “criminal acts.”
The spokesperson slammed the Israeli violations, including the killing and arresting of Palestinian worshippers who have been holding the daily prayers outside the gates to Al-Aqsa Mosque and depriving Palestinians of their right of worship, as terrorism.
Israeli police closed the mosque last Friday for Muslims following an attack outside its gates that left three alleged attackers and two policemen dead. The mosque was reopened on Sunday but after metal detectors were installed, a move the Palestinians said they will not accept because it changes the status quo at the mosque.
Since then, Palestinian Muslims have been holding the daily prayers outside the gates to the mosque, insisting that they will not enter it for worship until the metal detectors are removed.
The Algerian spokesman called on the international community to promptly and urgently intervene to provide the Palestinian people and their holy sites with protection and to put a stop to Israel’s escalated criminal acts against the unarmed Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory.
He expressed Algeria’s full solidarity with the Palestinian people and their leadership, reiterating Algeria’s position in support of the Palestinian cause and Palestinians’ in their struggle to regain their inalienable rights, including the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
