PA high official: The Temple Mount is “purely Islamic,” including the Western Wall
Headline: “Al-Habbash: The place of prayer at the Gate of Mercy is an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque”
“Supreme Shari’ah Judge and [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas’] Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash said that the Gate of Mercy is an integral part of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, whose territory is 144 dunams (144,000 sq. meters -Ed.), and which includes the plazas, yards, original places of prayer including the place of prayer at the Gate of Mercy (refers to illegal compound that was the focus of Muslim riots in 2019; see note below -Ed.), and the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall of the Temple Mount).
In a statement today, Sunday [April 23, 2023], Al-Habbash emphasized that the Jerusalem Noble Sanctuary (i.e., the Temple Mount) with all its details is a pure Islamic heritage, to which non-Muslims have no right – which the international institutions have confirmed and recognized since 1930 through the League of Nations (sic., apparently refers to 1930 Wailing Wall Commission that said the Western Wall was holy to both Jews and Muslims; see note below), and also through UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) and other organizations.
After the occupation forces raided the place of prayer at the Gate of Mercy at the Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday, prevented the mosque’s guards from entering the place of prayer, and destroyed the power supply and the lighting, Al-Habbash said in his statement: ‘The Gate of Mercy is not just a historical heritage, but rather it is first and foremost a part of the Islamic faith as one of the structures accompanying the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and adjacent to it are buried companions of Allah’s Messenger [Muhammad]. Our people will defend all parts and facilities of the Noble Sanctuary with full determination, as part of the battle to defend the faith of Islam on behalf of the entire Islamic nation, which Allah gave it the honor of waging [this battle].’
He emphasized that the occupation’s project in Jerusalem will not be executed as long as we are alive, and as long as one Muslim remains on this land. He also said that the occupation must seek its tales and delusions elsewhere.”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 23, 2023]
Mahmoud Al-Habbash also serves as Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice. In August 2019 PA Chairman Abbas dismissed all his advisors by Presidential decree. It is unclear what their status is today.
February 2019 Temple Mount clashes – Muslim riots broke out on the Temple Mount starting Feb. 18, 2019, after the Israeli police closed a compound near the Gate of Mercy after the Jordanian Waqf had violated an Israeli court order by reopening the compound the previous week. The compound was ordered sealed in 2017 given that it was managed by the banned Islamic Movement in Israel and used for illegal construction and antiquities destruction.
The Al-Buraq Wall - Islam's Prophet Muhammad is said to have ridden during his Night Journey from Mecca to "al aqsa mosque", i.e., "the farthest mosque" (Quran, Sura 17), and there tied his miraculous flying steed named Al-Buraq to a "stone" or a "rock." (Jami` at-Tirmidhi, Book 47, Hadith 3424). In the 1920's, Arab Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini decided to identify the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem as that "rock" or "stone," and since then Muslims refer to the Western Wall as the "Al-Buraq Wall."
The 1930 Wailing Wall Commission was appointed by the British government, with the approval of the League of Nations, to settle the matter of the Jews' and Muslims' rights and claims to the Western Wall. The commission concluded that the Western Wall had served as a Jewish holy site long before it became a Muslim waqf (an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law). The commission's final conclusion was that although the Western Wall was a Muslim waqf, it was holy to both Muslims and Jews and therefore the Jews should be granted free access to worship at the site.