If ever an Arab news site could use the word “Gevald,” it was on Wednesday, Jerusalem Liberation Day, when, as the Ma’an news agncy described it, “Hundreds of settlers have inundated since Wednesday morning the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Old City of Jerusalem and the Al-Buraq Wall, amid calls for the golden jubilee of Jerusalem Day … and for ascension to the Temple Mount.”
To clarify, every Israeli is a “settler” in the PA and Hamas Arab news lingo; Al-Aqsa refers to the entire Temple Mount compound, despite the obvious grammatical problem since “aqsa” means the edge; and Al-Buraq Wall is, of course, the Western Wall.
According to the Ma’an correspondent, “dozens of settlers have organized marches and tours in the Old City of Jerusalem and at the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque. They have performed prayers and rituals of their own, while dozens of them have stormed the squares of the mosque in successive groups through the Mugrabi Gate.”
To clarify, by “stormed the square” the news agency refers to Israeli visitors carefully walking around the Temple Mount perimeter, so as not to step on a sacred stoned without having been cleansed by the ashes of a red heifer.
Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, Director-General of Waqf Jerusalem, told Ma’an that “more than 470 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the morning, pointing out that the number might rise during the next hour until the closure of the door of the Mugrabi gate through which the storming and desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque is conducted, with the support of the occupation government and protection from the Israeli police forces.”
According to Ma’an, “celebrations of the so-called ‘Unification of Jerusalem’ marking the 50th anniversary of the occupation of the rest of the city of Jerusalem in 1967” will include “presentations of the Israeli flag and Star of David” in a “huge” afternoon march “from West Jerusalem through Bab Al-Khalil and Al-Jadid Street and Bab Al-Amoud and the streets of Old Jerusalem to the Al-Buraq Wall,” – now get this – “during which the residents will be provoked by racist slogans and Israeli flags flying throughout the march.”
Only Ma’an gives you the news before it happens. Let’s all go out there and get provoked…
