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July 30, 2017 4:45 pm
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US Islamists Promote Nationwide Protests Despite Israeli Concessions

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avatar by Steven Emerson

Opinion

Israeli paramedics tend to the wounded after a terrorist attack on the Temple Mount. Photo: Israel Police screenshot

In solidarity with Palestinian factions and terrorist groups, pro-Palestinian Islamist organizations in the United States geared up for more anti-Israel protests on Friday, even though the original cause for their anger has been rescinded.

Last week, Israel removed metal detectors on the Temple Mount, which had been installed near an entrance to Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque in response to a deadly July 14th terrorist attack there; terrorists managed to smuggle their guns into the mosque on the morning of that attack. Yet Israel’s acquiescence of removing the metal detectors has not silenced its main detractors.

Rallies planned throughout the United States are still being pushed by groups such as American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Jewish Voice for Peace.

In a published set of talking points, AMP claimed that the removal of metal detectors “doesn’t mean that the sanctity of the Noble Sanctuary is guaranteed, nor that Israel will not try other methods in the future to alter the status quo in the Aqsa mosque.”

This message builds on years of false Palestinian claims that Israel is keeping Muslims from praying at the mosque.

The metal detectors were installed only after Palestinian terrorists attacked and killed two police officers.

US-based Islamist figures and groups are even challenging Israel’s right to install additional surveillance cameras on the Temple Mount — the compound that houses the mosque and site of the last Jewish temple. While enhanced surveillance measures often follow Western terrorist attacks, any action to improve Israel’s national security — no matter how minor — is met with disproportionate anger from groups opposed to Israel’s existence in any form.

AMP held an “All Out for Al Aqsa” rally last weekend in Times Square, featuring speakers who called for Israel’s destruction and radical chants from the crowd.

“You [Israel] are a hypocrisy state that will eventually be, will eventually go away. Israel will not last long,” said AMP-New Jersey president and national board member Sayel Kayed.

The rally featured similarly threatening chants made in Arabic.

“With life, with blood, we sacrifice for you Al Aqsa.” “The gate of Al Aqsa is of iron [Hadid], no one can open it but a martyr [Shahid].” These chants, translated by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), show how US Islamist groups cultivate an atmosphere where terrorism and violence against Israel is openly encouraged.

Anti-Israel student groups are also joining the fray. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (UIUC) posted a statement on Facebook last week inciting violence, the Algemeiner reported.

“Long live the Intifada!,” the group exclaimed, adding in Arabic “Long live resistance.” These words are commonly invoked by anti-Israel activists who wish to inspire violent uprisings and terrorism against Israel.

The growing anti-Israel hysteria permeated the Islamic Center of Davis in California on July 21, where American imam Ammar Shahin delivered an antisemitic sermon.

“Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews. Oh Allah, destroy those who closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque. … Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them,” preached Shahin, according to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Council on American-Islamic Relations Executive Director Nihad Awad did not comment on the Shahin sermon. But he did urge all imams to talk about the issue, saying “Israeli occupiers are suppressing religious freedom in #Jerusalem.”

CAIR’s St. Louis chapter organized a march last Sunday that cast metal detectors and security cameras as a Jewish “siege” of the mosque, and featured chants of “free Al-Aqsa.”

CAIR’s Georgia chapter also co-hosted an anti-Israel event, with the far-left group Jewish Voice for Peace outside the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta.

AMP alerted its network to additional nationwide protests, including this past Friday outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. There was also a planned demonstration on Friday in downtown Chicago and in New York City. On Sunday, a “March for Al Aqsa” is scheduled to take place at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles.

US-based Islamists are joining Palestinian factions from across the political spectrum, who continue to call on Palestinians to protest against Israel.

For the second straight week, Hamas has called for a “day of rage” while Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party incites violence by encouraging its supporters to “intensify” confrontations with Israeli authorities throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem. Abbas went a step further on Wednesday and gave the green light for Fatah’s Tanzim terrorist group to organize mass demonstrations.

On July 14, the Muslim Brotherhood led the way with calls for an “Islamic Intifada” — a violent uprising — against Israel following that day’s deadly Palestinian terrorist attack.

“The Muslim Brotherhood calls upon the sons of the Islamic Umma (nation), its Ulema (Muslim religious scholars), figures and blocs for an Intifada in order to stop the (alleged Israeli) violations of holy sites,” the Brotherhood wrote on its official Arabic-language website — as translated by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT).

The Brotherhood admitted its main motivation for “our intended uprising” was to “pressure all Western governments, Arab regimes and international organizations to intervene to stop violations by gangs of the Zionist entity.”

Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups in the US are heeding this call, organizing nationwide protests, inciting violence and seeking to pressure the US government into forcing more Israeli concessions.

The opinions presented by Algemeiner bloggers are solely theirs and do not represent those of The Algemeiner, its publishers or editors. If you would like to share your views with a blog post on The Algemeiner, please be in touch through our Contact page.

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