During violent clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in recent days, a Palestinian imam led a prayer calling for the “extermination” of the “evil” Jews and their supporters that was broadcast on Palestinian Authority (PA) television.
Appearing on PA TV last Sunday, the imam called for “victory over the infidels” in the “conquest” of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound during his Ramadan prayer, according to a translation by the Washington-based Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) monitoring group.
“Allah, delight us with the conquest and liberation of the Al-Aqsa mosque,” he chanted.
“Allah, make us among the first to enter, the conquerors, the worshipers, and those calling out ‘Allahu Akbar’ [Allah is great] inside [the mosque] to you, master of the universe.”
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The imam then explicitly called for the “extermination” of the “evil” Jews and their supporters.
“Allah, delight us with the extermination of the evil Jews, O master of the universe, and [the extermination] of their hypocritical supporters who have evil in their hearts.”
The prayer took place at the Al-Ain Mosque in El-Bireh, in the West Bank, the site of recent confrontations between Palestinian rioters and Israeli forces.
In response, PMW described the prayer as “explicit incitement to murder” and called for the arrest of the heads of PA TV and the Palestinian Broadcast Corporation.
The service occurred during clashes between Israeli forces and violent Palestinian rioters that erupted on the Temple Mount earlier this month, following visits of Jews to the site and the rioters’ attempts to prevent them from doing so.
In one incident, a group of Jewish worshipers in the Old City of Jerusalem was violently attacked by several Palestinians.
The Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site and Islam’s third holiest. It is administered by the Jordanian Islamic Waqf, which prohibits both Jewish and Christian prayer.
Jews are currently barred from entering until the end of Ramadan at the start of next month.
On Wednesday, Israeli police were attacked with rocks and firebombs hurled from within the mosque, with some igniting fires within the mosque.
Several Palestinian were arrested as a result.
“The violence endangers worshipers attempting to enter the mosque, and impeded police efforts to ensure freedom of worship at the site,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said. “The Molotov Cocktails set fire to a mat and a window causing fires that luckily were extinguished before greater damage was done.”
The tensions followed a terror wave in Israel that saw several attacks on Israeli citizens over two weeks, resulting in 14 deaths.
The deadliest occurred in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, claiming five lives. Palestinians in multiple cities came out in large numbers to celebrate the attacks while handing out sweets to passersby.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.