Joint List chairman, MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) blasted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday, October 8, after the PM extended to Arab MKs the ban he imposed a day earlier on Jewish MKs and ministers from ascending Al-Aqsa Mosque (Temple Mount). “Netanyahu is wobbly; he has no position or backbone,” Odeh slammed and continued: “Furthermore, Netanyahu has no authority, legal or moral, to prevent Arab MKs from visiting the mosque.”
Netanyahu initially forbade Jewish ministers and MKs from visiting the Al-Aqsa – Temple Mount on Wednesday night, October 7. After his decision sparked outrage from his extreme-right coalition, he extended the ban to Arab MKs. However, according to Odeh, Netanyahu doesn’t have the authority to issue such a directive against the Joint List, as the Al-Aqsa “is occupied territory under the protection of the King of Jordan and the Muslim Waqf. Netanyahu continues to be led by radical settlers who control his coalition and are driving us all to the edge of the cliff.”
“If Netanyahu were really concerned about security, he would stop trying to deal with small ‘fires’ and enter into real negotiations that will resolve the conflict and lead to an independent Palestinian state and end the occupation,” Odeh said. The head of the Joint List indicated that he and a group of Arab MKs would visit Al-Aqsa this coming Sunday, October 11, directly defying the ban.
Protest on Friday in Tel-Aviv
Today, Friday, October 9, a demonstration against the Occupation and Escalation of the conflict will be held starting at 13:00 from the corner of Ben-Zion Boulevard and King George Street in Tel Aviv. The demonstration is being organized by Hadash and the Communist Party of Israel. The invitation to the protest reads as follows:
“In between wars and military operations, the right-wing governments construct more and more settlements. Between one round of futile negotiations and the next, the government of Israel continuously creates facts on the ground, facts which prevent the achieving of peace and security and only lay the ground for the next war. Between one escalation and the next, the government repeatedly turns a blind eye to the violence of the nationalist settler gangs who rampage, burn and kill throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories. And between one round of violence and the next, Netanyahu is convinced he has found the magic formula which will allow him to manage the conflict and to maintain the occupation forever.
“But reality is now exploding in our faces. Moment by moment, the occupation becomes ever more violent and dangerous. From day to day, the right-wing government stokes the flames of the conflict which endangers all who live here. And the price is being paid by all of us, on both sides.
“The right-wingers assert that the answer to the escalation and the wave of violence is more and more brute force: more killings, more arrests, more shooting at children and more construction of settlements. But the only way to end the cycle of death, violence and escalation is to reach a political settlement: ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state, coexisting side by side with Israel in its internationally recognized 1967 borders, and with its capital in East Jerusalem.”
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/693524147448444/
