Hamas broadcasts from Temple Mount

Hamas broadcast live from the Temple Mount on Wednesday morning and announced they would commence daily programming from the site – Judaism's holiest - while Israeli police forced banned all Jews and Christian from ascending the Mount as Muslims observe the holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Jewish Temple Mount activist groups had wanted to lead tours of the Mount this morning, which marked the start of Jewish fast day of the Tenth of Tevet, mourning the First Temple's destruction and the siege placed on Jerusalem leading up to Temple's destruction during the reign of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

"Our broadcast is a victory for the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is suffering from Judaization efforts imposed by the Zionist government. Broadcasting daily radio is a way to bring Al Aqsa to the Gaza Strip and challenge the siege imposed on us by the Zionist entity," said Rami Kaoud, a manager at Al Aqsa Radio, Hamas' official radio network.

Along with the Jewish fast day, today also marked the start of Muslim holiday of Ein ul-Adhaa, which commemorates the Islamic belief of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah. According to Jewish and Christian tradition, Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, not Ishmael.

Hamas' Al Aqsa radio network routinely broadcasts sermons and speeches from Hamas leaders and Hamas-affiliated sheiks calling for the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews. It has been airing commercials the past few days promoting today's Temple Mount broadcast.

Asked if the police approved the Hamas broadcast, Jerusalem Police Spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby said that the Israeli police were unaware of Hamas' intent prior to WND's inquiry.

A senior police official said that if Hamas was indeed planning programming from the Temple Mount, such a broadcast would be halted.

But at 5:00 am on Wednesday, Hamas' Al Aqsa Radio broadcast services from the Temple Mount for over three hours. During the program, a Hamas official announced the group's station would exclusively broadcast services from the Al Aqsa Mosque every day.

Hamas would not say how they coordinated today's broadcast, but Palestinian security sources said the stream was fully coordinated with the Waqf, the Islamic custodians of the Temple Mount.

'Babylonian siege all over again'

Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute, a Mount activist group which planned to lead a tour of the site today, said the Israeli police informed his group earlier this week they had decided the Mount would be closed today to non-Muslims for fear of offending Muslims on the Islamic holiday.

Richman called today's Hamas broadcast "astounding."

"The siege of Nebuchadnezzar is recurring again in our time, this time through the Israeli government, which is banning Jews and Christians but is allowing Hamas, who will defile God in our holiest place. There is no greater demonstration of the total spiritual bankruptcy of the Israeli government," he said.

Today's Hamas broadcast was not the first by a terror group.

In September the Islamic Jihad terror organization exclusively broadcast daily Ramadan prayers from the Mount on their official station, the al-Quds Network. The radio network regularly features Iranian and anti-Semitic propaganda and death threats against Jews.

According to Palestinian security sources speaking to WND, Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds radio used

technicians from the Voice of Palestine, the official radio network of the Palestinian Authority, to facilitate the Temple Mount broadcasts, even though the program is not aired on PA radio. The Voice of Palestine has a permit to broadcast from the Mount.

The Palestinian sources said the Waqf as well as the PA were "well aware" Islamic Jihad was broadcasting from the Mount.

Reprinted by permission of WorldNetDaily