Shia Strength: [shia_strength] Fwd: [R] Hamas: 'Hurva' Synagogue a Declaration of War; Israel Playing With Fire

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

[shia_strength] Fwd: [R] Hamas: 'Hurva' Synagogue a Declaration of War; Israel Playing With Fire

Hamas: 'Hurva' Synagogue a Declaration of War; Israel Playing With Fire

Israel has opened the so-called "Hurva" (Ruin) synagogue in occupied Jerusalem (al-Quds) on Monday, in a move backed by the United States and ignited angry protests by Palestinians in the holy city and elsewhere in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Hamas announced Tuesday a "day of rage" a day following the opening of the synagogue a few hundred meters from the al-Aqsa Mosque in.

A joint Palestinian factions' statement read by Hamas' Politburo Chief Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Monday, described the synagogue opening as "a declaration of war" because of its direct threat to the holy site. "It is part of a project to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque" and replace it with Israel's so-called "Solomon's Temple."

Mashaal slammed Tel Aviv's "falsification of history and Jerusalem's religious and historic monuments". "Israel is playing with fire and touching off the first spark to make the region explode," he said.

Head of al-Quds international institution, Dr. Ahmed Abu Halabiya, warned the opening of the synagogue in al-Quds was part of an Israeli plan "to build a Jewish temple on al-Aqsa ruins."

Hamas called on Arab and Islamic governments to shoulder the responsibility of protecting Al-Quds and the Aqsa Mosque. The movement also urged PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and his entourage to end the futile negotiations with the Israeli occupation government and to return to the ranks of the Palestinian resistance to confront the occupation and its schemes.

Senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahhar leveled scathing criticism to the occupation government saying: "You who are opening Hurva are heading towards ruin. Wherever you have been you've been sent to your destruction. You've killed and murdered your prophets and you have always dealt in loan-sharking and destruction," he said Monday, during a conference of Palestinian groups in Gaza.

"You're destined to be destroyed. You've made a deal with the devil and with destruction itself – just like your synagogue," al-Zahhar said.

He urged the Arab world to respond to "Israel's crimes and protect the sites that are holy to Muslims and Christians from the Zionists' racist onslaught".