The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said in a statement today that the Islamic world marks the painful forty-fifth anniversary of the Israeli occupation's crime of burning the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque amid accelerating rate of Israeli attacks and violations against holy sites in Al-Quds Al-Sharif. Repeated attacks are lunched against Muslim and Christian worshippers, who are denied access to their places of worship. Storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque spaces by the Israeli extremists continue in addition to sinister attempts to impose a policy of fait accompli aimed at temporally and spatially dividing the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This anniversary takes places at a time when the occupied city of Al-Quds faces a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at changing its demographic character, erasing its landmarks, purging it of its original inhabitants and installing in their places Israeli settlers, in flagrant violation of international law and related resolutions of international legitimacy. On this painful occasion, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation reiterates that the occupied Al-Quds and the safety of its holy sites are of paramount importance for all Muslims and closely linked to security and stability of the entire region. The OIC also renews its unfettered support for the rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied Al-Quds, capital of the State of Palestine. It appeals to Member States to continue to provide all forms of support to the city and boost the resilience of its indigenes. While the OIC holds Israel, the occupying authority, fully responsible for the safety of all holy sites under its occupation, it renews its call to the international community, particularly the Security Council, to assume its responsibility of stopping Israeli crimes and attacks in the entire Palestinian territory, in particular the ongoing military aggression in the Gaza Strip.
