Ramallah, West Bank - The head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, has claimed there are Israeli plans to empty the museum of Al-Aqsa Mosque and turn it into a synagogue.
“The museum is one of the mihrabs (niches) of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and an integral part of it, and has a religious value akin to the Dome of the Rock mosque in Islam,” Sheikh Ra’ed Salah said in a statement on Thursday.
The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage also revealed Thursday that Israeli authorities are conducting a series of excavations in the area containing the Umayyad palaces, adjacent to the southern wall of the holy mosque.
The foundation said that these excavations, covered with tents and plastic sheets, take place at night, especially in one of the water wells in the area that extends under the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
It warned of the impact of such diggings on the foundations of the holy mosque, noting that similar excavations carried out in the past led to cracks and fissures in the southern wall.
It claimed that these excavations are part of an Israeli scheme to increase the influence of Judaism in the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from all sides.
Control over the city has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state but Israel says the entire city remains its eternal capital.