Abbas: Israelis have no right to desecrate our holy sites with their filthy feet
Palestinian leader's comments come amid the violence at Jerusalem's Temple Mount over the past few days.
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHUpdated: SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 03:43Mahmoud Abbas(photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinians won’t allow Israelis to “desecrate” Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday, referring to the tensions surrounding visits by Jews to the Temple Mount.“Al-Aksa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem,” Abbas said in his Ramallah office during a meeting with east Jerusalem activists.Abbas said the Palestinians were determined to prevent Israel from passing its scheme to “divide” the Aksa Mosque compound.“There will be no Palestinian state without Jerusalem,” he stressed. “We are in Jerusalem and we will stay in it to defend our Islamic and Christian holy sites. We’re not going to leave our country.”He praised Muslim male and female worshipers whose job it is to harass Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount.“Each drop of blood that was spilled in Jerusalem is pure blood as long as it’s for the sake of Allah. Every shahid (martyr) will be in heaven and every wounded person will be rewarded, by Allah’s will.”Also Wednesday, Abbas phoned Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and discussed with him the situation in Jerusalem in light of the controversy surrounding visits by Jews to the Temple Mount.