JERUSALEM, March 22, 2018 (WAFA) - The Islamic Religious Endowments (Waqf) Council in Jerusalem warned against Israeli plans to hold the festival of Passover Offerings in Umayyad palaces area, adjacent to the walls of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Preparations for the festival, which will be attended by senior Israeli Rabbis and singers, will begin on Sunday as announced online by the ‘Temple Mount’ movement.

The council in a statement stressed that the Umayyad palaces and all that surrounds al-Aqsa Mosque are an integral part of the Islamic Waqf and are purely for Muslims.

The statement slammed Israeli plans to hold the festival at Umayyad Palaces  as a violation of the sanctity of al-Aqsa Mosque, warning against such Israeli steps, which the council stressed would provoke the feelings of Muslims and could have ominous consequences.

Non-Muslim worship at al-Aqsa mosque compound and its surrounding religious Muslim sites is prohibited according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government after Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Despite this agreement, Israeli authorities regularly allow Jewish visitors to enter the site and carry out religious rituals; often under armed guard.

The compound is now administered by the Islamic Endowment, whose employees often face detention by Israeli forces while attempting to protect the site from provocative Israeli right-wing incursions into the site.

T.R.