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Official PA daily: Construction of synogagues "constitutes a base for targeting the [Al-Aqsa] Mosque‎"

     ‎“At its meeting yesterday [March 31, 2014], ‎the Objections Subcommittee of the ‎District Planning and Construction ‎Committee approved the construction of ‎the Tiferet Israel synagogue in the heart of ‎the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, a ‎mere 200 meters from the Al-Aqsa ‎Mosque…‎
The Al-Aqsa Institute for Islamic Trusts ‎and Heritage said in a statement that the ‎occupation has, so far, constructed ‎approximately 100 synagogues and ‎yeshivas (religious studies academies) in ‎the Old City of occupied Jerusalem and its ‎environs, with the aim of completely ‎Judaizing the Old City within the next 20 ‎years…‎
The Institute said that many senior Israeli ‎officials have had a part in the incitement ‎against Al-Aqsa, either through planning ‎the construction of synagogues or ‎planning the destruction of the Mosque, ‎since synagogues constitute a base for ‎targeting the Mosque. He noted that the ‎occupation has, in recent years, ‎constructed two large synagogues: the ‎‎‘Hurva Synagogue,’ constructed on the ‎ruins of a mosque and an Islamic Trust in ‎the Al-Sharaf neighborhood (i.e., The ‎Jewish Quarter), and the Beit Yitzhak (i.e., ‎Ohel Yitzhak) Synagogue.”‎
From WAFA, official PA news agency

Note: ‎The Tiferet Israel, Hurva and Ohel Yitzhak ‎synagogues are reconstructions of 19th ‎century synagogues that were destroyed in ‎‎1948 or during the period of Jordanian rule ‎between 1948 and 1967. The original ‎Tiferet Israel Synagogue was constructed ‎in 1872 on land that had been purchased ‎from its Arab owners; it was destroyed by ‎the Jordanian Legion in 1948. The original ‎Hurva synagogue was completed in 1864 ‎on the ruins of a previous synagogue, ‎which had been destroyed in 1720; it was ‎destroyed by the Jordanian Legion in ‎‎1948. (Contrary to the claims made in the ‎above item, no mosque existed on the site; ‎synagogues and other Jewish community ‎buildings had stood there since the 13th ‎century.) The original Ohel Yitzhak ‎Synagogue was built in the 1870’s in a ‎courtyard that had been purchased from ‎the prominent Khalidiyah family, the ‎owners of one of the largest and most ‎important Islamic family libraries in the ‎world today. It was abandoned during the ‎Arab riots of 1938, and destroyed by the ‎Jordanians during the period of Jordanian ‎rule between 1948 and 1967. ‎

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