Why Does the Israeli Regime Seek to Divide Al-Aqsa Mosque?

Against the Israeli regime’s will, massive coverage of the Palestinian protests in the West Bank and the occupied territories has continued, in a way that some of the media have called the new wave of protests as Intifada III.

(Alwaght English News) - The spatiotemporal division of the holy sites between Zionists and Palestinians would prepare the ground for the Israeli army’s domination over them and full-scale Judaization of these holy places.

This appears to be the plan the Israeli regime is struggling to put into effect, using different excuses, as it was the case in the division of the Ibrahimi Mosque, also know Cave of the Patriarchs.

In the beginning of its establishment, the Israeli regime, with the help of the colonizing powers and relying on its military strength, occupied the Palestinian territories and annexed them to its borders, but in the present circumstances of the international system this process has suffered a lot of setbacks which include:

-The international circumstances have changed in comparison to the 1940s and 1950s, and most of the global states as well as the international organizations do not recognize the Palestinian annexed territories by Tel Aviv as Israeli areas.

-The newly occupied Palestinian areas are not settled by Jewish population, just unlike the 1949 occupied territories which are resided by the Jewish minorities.

-The definite annexation of the occupied Palestinian lands to the Israeli territories could risk triggering new wars and sparking Arab countries’ tougher measures like the Arab-Israeli war of 1973.

-Victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran and rise of the anti-Israeli resistant movements has limited Israeli regime's saber-rattling in the region.

The Israeli governments, especially the right-wing parties including the extremist Likud party and its prime ministers like Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu, have always tried to take control over Palestinian holy places like the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to legitimize Tel Aviv Regime's presence in the Palestinian occupied territories. Following their plans, they have stepped up Judaizing the areas through erecting settlements, seizing Palestinian lands, and Judaizing the whole sites by dividing them between Jews and Muslims spatiotemporally.

For example, in the beginning the Ibrahimi Mosque was exposed to storming by Israeli settlers. After a while, the Israeli army closed the mosque’s doors with the excuse of preventing more clashes between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Then, they reopened the mosque to the Jews and Palestinians in scheduled times, and after fencing and manipulating the heart of the holy site, partitioned it according to time and space between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

The Israeli settlers from time to time storm and disrespect the sanctity of the Palestinian section of the Ibrahimi Mosque, trying to stir clashes and push for new fences there in an attempt to achieve their final goal of full Judaization of the holy place.

It seems that the Israelis are attempting to adjust the Ibrahimi Mosque’s scenario this time in al-Aqsa Mosque, as during the current year the Israeli settlers have stormed the holy place several times, they have set fire on it and damaged some of its parts. The very latest event happened when the Israeli Minister of Agriculture, Uri Ariel, who is from the right-wing Jewish Home Party, entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque accompanied by a large number of settlers, causing clashes between the Palestinians and the Jews.

Israel's reasons for choosing the present time to adopt the plan of dividing al-Aqsa Mosque spatiotemporally could be figured out by examining the present Muslim world’s tense conditions. Because of the Takfiri armed groups and the Turkey and Saudi Arabia’s adventurism in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, an appropriate atmosphere is created for Tel Aviv to adopt such plans. The Israeli officials are following their project of partitioning al-Aqsa Mosque while the terror actions conducted by the fundamentalist terrorist groups like ISIS could, to a great extent, digress the public opinions’ attention from the Palestinian developments.

However, against the Israeli regime’s will, massive coverage of the Palestinian protests in the West Bank and the occupied territories has continued, in a way that some of the media have called the new wave of protests as Intifada III.