This day—21 August marks the painful fifty-fourth anniversary of the sinful attempt to burn the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first of the two qiblas and the third of the Holy Mosques, considering the escalation of violations by Israel, the occupying power, and its attempts to prejudice Al-Aqsa’s legal and historical status through repeated incursions into its courtyards by extremist settlers under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, its desecration, the closing of its gates, the barbaric attacks on crowds of worshipers, and the restriction of the worshipers’ freedom of access to it, in flagrant violation of the sanctity of holy places and freedom of worship.
On this painful anniversary, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) reaffirms the eternal bond of Muslims with the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. It stresses the need to preserve the legal and historical status of the Islamic and Christian holy places in the occupied city of Al-Quds, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Ash-Sharif, with its entire area of 144 dunums, as a place of worship purely for Muslims only.
The OIC also affirms that the city of Al-Quds Ash-Sharif, the capital of the State of Palestine, is an integral part of the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967 and rejects any measures or decisions aimed at changing its geographical or demographic character, as well as any attempts to impose alleged Israeli sovereignty over this city and its sanctities, as Illegal and illegitimate actions under international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.
On this ominous anniversary, the OIC calls on the international community, especially the actors in the international arena, to correct the historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people by ending the Israeli colonial occupation and enabling the Palestinians to regain their legitimate rights, including their right to return, and the establishment of their independent state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Al-Quds as its capital, and the realization of the vision of the two-state solution based on the relevant United Nations resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, which still represents, with all its elements and natural sequence, a political and legal reference and a historic opportunity to achieve peace.
As the OIC expresses, on this occasion, its appreciation and admiration for the Palestinian people who are steadfast in their land defending their sanctities, it reaffirms its solidarity and unwavering support for its legitimate national rights and calls for strengthening support, solidarity, and support for the city of Al-Quds and its stationed people.
