Israel playing with fire over Aqsa

Qudsna; commentary desk:

The Zionist regime has been pursuing to divide the al-Aqsa mosque temporally and spatially, further fanning the sentiments of Palestinians and building up angers that may lead to another  intifada.

Palestinians have already had bloody clashes with the regime's forces who have limited the arrival of the Muslims in the sacred area.

The anti-Israeli campaign has also had an unlikely advocate: the Palestinian Authority head, Mahmoud Abbas who has broken his silent and called for Fatah supporters to prevent the settlers' attacks against the al-Aqsa mosque by any means, albeit the PA forces still come down hard on any anti-Israeli protests in the West Bank. Abbas' stance however would add to the weight of the mosque in any newer round of Palestinian liberation struggles and would open the way for further support among Muslims for Palestine.

Muslims normally feel responsible towards their sanctities and would subsequently press their governments to adopt relevant firm positions. Actually, should the Palestinian struggle revolved around the axis of Islamic values from the very start, the Palestinian objectives would have been materialized far sooner. It also follows that the Palestinian issue was undermined after it was designated merely as an Arab and then as a national issue.

The al-Aqsa Mosque issue has moved to the center of the Palestinian issue nowadays. The mosque is considered as a matter of sanctity by all Palestinians, including those residing inside the 1948 occupied areas of the historical Palestine so that the 1.6m-strong population would rise alongside other Palestinians in case an intifada breaks out over the status of the al-Aqsa mosque. Israel is then playing with fire by its recent breaches of the mosque.