I love how its always "stormed" Al Aqsa. If you are an average person who just drinks propaganda pages like "Suppressed News" you would get a very wrong impression about this place and the daily reality there. Here's the real story - "Al Aqsa, or "the farthest" is a mosque originally built on the far southern tip of the Temple Mount after the Arabs conquered Byzantine Palestine (formerly Israel/Judea). It was destroyed in earthquakes and eventually rebuilt in the 12th century. "Al Aqsa" is a vague reference to Islamic belief of when the Prophet Muhamad made his mystical night-time journey to heaven on his winged horse-like creature "Al Burak" from the "farthest" spot - which was later retroactively associated with Jerusalem after the Muslim takeover of Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock, or Kubat Al Sahra, is not a mosque but a shrine on top of where the Jewish Temple once stood, which in Jewish (and then Christian and then Muslim belief) is the center of the world and where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac (Muslims revised this to Ishmael). What Muslims always acknowledged until a couple generations ago - was that the site of their "3rd holiest spot" was the site of the Jews' holiest site by far - what Mecca is to Muslims the Temple Mount is to Jews. Centuries of brutal Christian and then less brutal Muslim conquest and occupation of Jerusalem prevented Jews from accessing their holiest site. But it was never suppressed that indeed, this is the holiest site to Jews. In 1948, while Israel mostly won its war of independence, it lost control of the old city of Jerusalem to Jordan, and the ancient Jewish presence in the old city was wiped out (yes, Jews, who pre 1948 made up most of Jerusalem's inhabitants were ethnically cleansed by Jordan). In 1967, when Israel recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem, it did a few amazing things but a few stupid things as well. Israel allowed and ensured - as it does to this day - full freedom of worship to all religions. It also allows each religion to manage its own religious affairs. This is good. Huge mistake however, was the following. As a gesture of respect and good will to the Muslims and to Jordan, Israel allowed the Jordanian Waqf to continue managing the Temple Mount, what many Muslims ignorantly around the world only refer to as "Al Aqsa", not knowing the Jewish, Christian or even Muslim history of the site. And, as there was an internal Jewish decision at the time that Jews should not ascend the Mount because we are impure and because we don't know exactly where the "holy of holies" actually stood, lest we defile it, rabbis at the time decided we shouldn't go up. Over time, it became somehow enshrined in status quo by the Arab world and the Muslims of the Palestinian areas that somehow "this is Muslim and Jews are not allowed". Ironically - there is literally one place in Israel where there is apartheid - where there is no freedom of access or worship. It is not a place where Muslims or Christians are forbidden from going - anyone can go into the Western Wall, for example. No - the Waqf and the radicalized Palestinian caretakes of the Mount forbid Jews from going to the Temple Mount - literally the holiest site in Jewish tradition. This has changed in recent years with a few hour windows throughout the day where "non Muslims" are allowed to go up - but "God forbid", not pray. THIS IS ANTI-JEWISH DISCRIMINATION IN ISRAEL. These "1000 Israeli settlers" (how does this sham account know if they're settlers or not) are acting out their democratic right of freedom of access in their own country. Nobody (in the mainstream public), by the way, is rejecting that this site is holy ALSO to Muslims or Christians. Nobody in the mainstream public is calling to destroy Muslim holy sites or prevent Muslims from accessing their holy sites. These "settlers" simply want to ALSO access the holiest site in Judaism that has been hijacked by the Palestinians and who have all but erased its Jewish history. To this day, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas continues to say that Jewish claims that the Temple stood there are fabricated. I believe in freedom of worship and access to people of all religions, to all holy sites in Israel. This continued twisted media revisionism is dangerous and false. Nobody is "storming" and God's holy sites should be open to all people. These "settlers" are finally undoing what a misguided Israeli government did out of good will in 1967. If you believe in peace and freedom of religion, don't buy this propaganda.
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