Qatar calls for international action to halt Israeli encroachments in Jerusalem

By Abdel Jabar Abu Ras

DOHA (AA) - Qatar urged the international community Thursday to take urgent action to compel Israel to stop encroachments on the rights of Palestinians and Islamic and Christian holy sites in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry released a statement on X that strongly condemned the Israeli occupation's allowance of a demonstration by extremists in occupied Jerusalem under the slogan of imposing control on Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Extreme right-wing groups had called for a march Thursday in the Old City of East Jerusalem to demand an end to the supervision of the Islamic Waqf (Endowments) on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and for complete Israeli control over the facility.

It prompted opposition leader Yair Lapid to warn of its consequences.

Organizers of the march said it coincided with the “Jewish Festival of Lights,” or Hanukka, and will pass through the Damascus Gate -- one of the gates of the Old City -- then through the Islamic quarter, reaching the Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall, adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry considered the demonstration “a serious provocation of feelings and a blatant attack on the rights of the Palestinian people and on the historical Hashemite custodianship of the holy sites in occupied Jerusalem.”

It warned of "Israeli efforts aimed at changing the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its holy sites."​​​​​​​

"Such provocative steps would increase tension and widen the circle of violence in the region," it said.

The statement emphasized “the need for the Israeli occupation to respect the historical and legal status quo in the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and to stop all steps aimed at changing this situation, in addition to the importance of the historical Hashemite custodianship in protecting the holy sites.”

The Foreign Ministry urged the international community “to take urgent action to oblige Israel to comply with the resolutions of international legitimacy and to stop its attacks on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and Islamic and Christian holy sites.”

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala