By Gomaa Moselhi
CAIRO
The Arab League will hold an emergency session on November 29 to discuss latest developments in the Palestinian territories, the pan-Arab organization said Sunday.
It said in a statement that the decision to hold the session was taken after Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi made consultations with Kuwait, which holds the rotating presidency of the Arab League, and Mauritania, which chairs the Arab League Council at present.
The league added that the November 29 meeting acquired importance in the light of continued Israeli settlement activities in occupied Jerusalem and violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Arab League said the meeting would be held at the level of foreign ministers.
Tension has run high in East Jerusalem since late last month, when Israel closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for several hours after an extremist rabbi was injured in a West Jerusalem drive-by shooting.
Unrest mounted further when Israeli forces killed a young Palestinian man – in a raid on his East Jerusalem home – who they suspected of having shot the rabbi.
Further aggravating the situation, a number of Israeli parliamentarians have forced their way into the mosque complex in recent weeks, drawing the ire of Muslim worshippers and official condemnation from Arab and Muslim countries.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
In September 2000, a visit to Al-Aqsa by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon triggered what later became known as the "Second Intifada," a popular uprising against Israel's decades-long occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.
www.aa.com.tr/en
