Students oppose Jewish presence in Al-Aqsa
About 5,000 Palestinian students demonstrated in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Monday against allowing Jews to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site.
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The Al-Aqsa mosque compound |
The protest took place at Nablus’ Al Najar University and was organised by the political group Hamas.
“We are all ready to be martyrs in order to defend it,” shouted the students.
Earlier this month an Israeli minister promised Jews they would soon be allowed to pray at the mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, even without the agreement of its Muslim guardians.
Demonstrators blew up a four-metre long wooden replica of a bus and a model of a Land Rover.
Addressing the protestors, local Hamas leader Ahmed Haj Ali, criticised the the international “road map” which was grudgingly and conditionally approved by Israel on 25 May.
“The roadmap is a trick. The only map that will lead us to victory is jihad (holy war),” he said.