WAFA News reported on Saturday that Mahmoud al-Habbash, the Palestinian Authority’s top Islamic judge and presidential adviser on religious affairs, called on all Palestinians to protect the Temple Mount against “Temple groups” who  he claims plan on “storming the Aqsa Mosque” on Thursday, the Jewish holiday of Purim. 

Al-Habbash warned that “terrorist groups and settler gangs are taking advantage of Jewish religious occasions to storm the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and try to impose a fait accompli as part of the Judaization schemes that target the Holy City in general and the Temple Mount in particular.”

“It is purely Islamic, and non-Muslims have no right to it, as stated in the Noble Qur’an and confirmed by international laws and UNESCO resolution,” a-Habbash said.

He called on Palestinian leaders “to send a clear message to the world that violating Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa is a violation of the faith of more than a billion and a half Muslims in all parts of the earth, and that the occupation seeks to ignite a religious war that will burn the whole world with its fire, and no one on the face of the earth will be spared from it or its consequence.”

It should be noted that the Muslim month of Ramadan begins on April 2, less than three weeks. The period of Ramadan is frequently a time of increased Islamic violence. 

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, also called on Palestinians to arrive at the mosque “to confront the calls launched by extremist settler groups to storm it during the Jewish holiday of Purim” later this week.

Sheikh Hussein claimed that Jews visiting the holy site will try to bring whistles and costumes into the mosque during the holiday, “in addition to singing, dancing and celebrating at its gates.” 

“Harming the sanctity of al-Aqsa Mosque is a heinous crime, which is  part of efforts to impose a new fait accompli there,” he added.

PA Minister of Religious Affairs Hatem al-Bakri issued a similar warning.

“The escalating and dangerous Israeli plans against Jerusalem, represented by ongoing attempts to interfere in the affairs of the Haram al-Sharif [Noble Sanctuary], intensive excavations under al-Aqsa Mosque, settlement projects and the daily incursions, are nothing but an attempt to change the status quo,” he said.

“The continuation of these crimes and provocative calls [by Jews to visit the Temple Mount] obliges the world to stand up to its responsibilities and to seriously intervene to put an end to these violations,” Bakri said. 

Assaf Fried, the spokesman for the Temple Organization, suggested that the threats may have been the product of a misunderstanding.

“There was an announcement last week for the Temple Mount Yeshiva to have a special event on the Temple Mount last Thursday with several important rabbis,” Fried said. “It seems that the Palestinians did not understand and they think there will be something on this Thursday.”

“There are plans for Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount on Purim but it is not expected to be anything exceptional,” Fried said. “Only Jerusalem people who aren’t having parties will go to the Temple Mount. And there certainly weren’t any calls to conquer the Temple Mount.”

“We already conquered the Temple Mount in 1967,” Fried said. “It seems the Arabs have not understood that yet. Even though they refer to Israel as the ‘occupation’, they still say that we want to conquer the Temple Mount. You can’t have it both ways. Either we are the occupation who conquered the Temple Mount or we are not the occupiers and we still need to conquer the city. There really is no need to conquer it again. That would just be redundant.”