UN Palestinian ambassador on Israeli minister’s Al-Aqsa visit
STORY: "It is the international community that decides the fate of defending and protecting the historic status quo in Jerusalem, in the defense of the Islamic and the Christian sites in Jerusalem," said Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations.
"The attack is not only against our holy sites on Al-Aqsa mosque and Haram al-Sharif. There are, because of this environment of extremism, that this Israeli extreme government, the extremists in the history of Israel, is leading to additional aggression against our Christian sites, Christian graveyards," he added.
Israel's new far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir briefly visited Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Tuesday, a site also revered by Jews, angering the Palestinians and drawing a slew of condemnations.
"The international community has to speak with one voice in rejecting this extremism and rejecting those terrorists and those elements of fascists in the Israeli government," Mansour said.
Al-Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is Islam's third holiest site. It is also Judaism's most sacred site.
It is also a symbol for Palestinian hopes of securing a state, a goal that looks ever bleaker with Ben-Gvir and other far-right allies now in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
It is located in East Jerusalem, among areas Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and where Palestinians seek statehood. Israel deems all of Jerusalem its indivisible capital - a status not recognized internationally.
