RSS
Despite International Support, Palestinian Authority Incites Hate, Wants ‘Islamic Awakening’ to ‘Save’ Al-Aqsa
Palestinian protestors walk around during clashes with Israeli security forces at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City April 22, 2022. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
During a sermon on official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV, a preacher called on Allah to “remove” Israel and “purify the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings” — i.e., the entire Temple Mount — the holiest place for Jews.
Official PA TV has broadcast many sermons with similar content:
Official PA TV sermon: “O Allah, remove this occupier, and make them disappear from this land. O Allah, purify the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings. O Allah, restore its sanctity and purity, and remove this occupation.”
[Official PA TV, Dec. 6, 2024]
Earlier this year, the same preacher called on Allah to “liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque” and “purify the land from the filth” of Israelis:
Official PA TV sermon: “O Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings soon. O Allah, purify our land of the filth of the occupiers. O Allah, remove them, O Master of the Universe.”
[Official PA TV, Oct. 18, 2024]
For decades, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has exposed how the PA libel that Israel is seeking to “destroy” the Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim holy sites has been a key motivator for Palestinian terror. This is combined with antisemitic statements that the Jewish presence at the Temple Mount is “defiling” the holy site.
Feeling abandoned by some Arab states’ normalization agreements with Israel, the PA continues to claim that the dangers to the mosque are real and to turn to the Islamic nations for help.
Meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash discussed “ways to strengthen the Islamic cooperation on everything related to providing political and material aid to Palestine, its leadership, and its people.”
Al-Habbash specified the alleged “dangers” to the Islamic holy sites:
We must concentrate and unify the Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic efforts to defend the holy religious sites in Palestine, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is being subjected to serious violations by the occupation [i.e., Israeli] authorities and the terrorist colonialist gangs, in order to change its historical and legal status and impose Israeli control on it.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Dec. 9, 2024]
Al-Habbash also met with Malaysian Minister of Religious Affairs Mohd Na’im Mokhtar, with whom he discussed “ways to cooperate to protect the holy sites and religious values in Palestine and the entire world in accordance with the basic principles anchored by Islam.”
He stressed that the protection of the Islamic and Christian holy sites and the prevention of “a religious conflict that will threaten all of humanity” require “the Islamic nation and the whole world”:
Al-Habbash briefed the Malaysian minister… about the Israeli violations at the Islamic and Christian holy sites in the holy city [of Jerusalem], and specifically at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque – which requires the Islamic nation and the whole world to set out with determination against these dangerous attacks before they lead to igniting a religious conflict that will threaten all of humanity. He held the occupation state [i.e., Israel] and those who stand alongside it in its aggression fully responsible for the consequences of its crimes.
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Dec. 10, 2024]
Al-Habbash has specified numerous times that Jews have “no rights” on the Temple Mount:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a pure Islamic right. It is an exclusive Islamic waqf for Muslims, and it is an exclusive right of the Muslims… At the UN podium, [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas spoke explicitly about the Muslims’ legal claim to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and [said] that non-Muslims have no right to it …
[Israel] knows that it has no right to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and that the Jews have no right to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. But they are only fanning the fire of hostility and the fire of religious war… The duty lies on the Islamic nation and the Arabs in general, with the governments, regimes, states, bodies, religious and popular sources of authority and [all] the peoples, to participate in defending the noble Al-Aqsa Mosque, starting with coming to it… and ending with liberating the Al-Aqsa Mosque by all possible means [i.e., including terror].”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Oct. 1, 2024]
Al-Habbash’s call for violence against Israel from Muslim states echoes a recent similar call for “an Islamic awakening” by Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki to save the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the “dangers”:
Zaki said that the dangers surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque requires “an Islamic awakening” to save it, and that the responsibility to defend the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque from the dangers surrounding it is laid on all the Muslims worldwide and not on the Palestinians alone.
[Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, Facebook page, Oct. 26, 2024]
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post Despite International Support, Palestinian Authority Incites Hate, Wants ‘Islamic Awakening’ to ‘Save’ Al-Aqsa first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.