Eight Muslim countries, including those relatively friendly to Israel, such as the United Arab Emirates, released a joint statement condemning Israel over Jewish activists’ occupation of the al-Aqsa mosque.
On Sunday, roughly 200 hard-line Israeli activists stormed one of the holiest sites of Islam, the al-Aqsa mosque. The group raised the Israeli flag at the site, sang the Israeli national anthem, and performed Talmudic prayers. The storming was a significant violation of the decades-old arrangement that Israeli authorities had agreed to, under which only Muslims are allowed to worship at the site. The mosque is managed by the Jordanian-protected Islamic Waqf.
In response, on Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey “strongly” condemned the “continued incursions by extremist Israeli settlers into the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif under the protection of Israeli forces, as well as the raising of the Israeli flag within its courtyards.” The group said the “provocative and unacceptable acts” were a “flagrant violation” of international law, United Nations resolutions, and the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem’s holy sites.
