Asim Azhar, Shahid Afridi and Farhan Saeed have raised their voice against Israel and their atrocities against the people of Palestine. They spoke up after reports came in that more than 200 Palestinians were wounded late on Friday outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli police fired rubber-coated metal bullets and stun grenades at innocent Palestinians.
“I am sickened and disgusted,” wrote Asim on Twitter. “How can you attack a place of worship and attack defenceless worshippers?”
“And yet again, the world will stay silent on Israel’s continuous oppression on Palestine. Ya Allah reham,” he added.
Former Pakistan Cricket team captain Shahid Afridi also condemned the atrocities and said that the walls of Al-Aqsa Mosque are on the floor, with Palestinian blood, and my eyes are red with tears of helplessness.
“The global conscience is sleeping wrapped in a blanket of indifference. Perhaps the blood of Muslims is so disrespectful that no voice will be raised and no campaign will be launched, he added.
“First Qibla [Al-Aqsa Mosque], we are unable to pay off the debt of your sanctity.
Similarly, Saeed wrote,”The world’s deafening silence is criminal! How can the international community sit back and watch this happen?”
“This is terrorism,” remarked the singer.
Tens of thousands of worshippers had earlier packed Islam’s third-holiest site on the final Friday of Ramzan and many stayed on to protest against Israeli plans to evict Palestinian families from their homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Palestinians have also staged a series of sit-ins in the area in recent days denouncing Israeli orders for them to vacate their homes. Israeli security forces have attacked the sit-ins using skunk water, tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and shock grenades. Dozens of Palestinians have been arrested.
Violence erupted on Friday when Israeli police deployed heavily as Muslims were performing evening prayers at Al-Aqsa during the holy month of Ramzan.
Sheikh Jarrah’s residents are overwhelmingly Palestinian, but the neighbourhood also contains a site revered by religious Jews. The site is known to be the tomb of an ancient high priest, Simeon the Just.
As per details, the Sheikh Jarrah cause has escalated over the past week but it is not a new issue.
Jewish settler organisations filed a lawsuit in the 1970s claiming the area belonged to Jews originally, and seeking the expulsion of Palestinian families living there since 1956.
These families, refugees from the 1948 Nakba, eventually settled in Sheikh Jarrah under an agreement between Jordan and the UN refugee agency.
The Israeli district court ruled that four families – al-Kurd, Iskafi, Qassim and Jaouni – must leave their homes for settlers to take over, or reach an agreement with these settler organisations by paying rent and recognising them as landlords.
The families refused and the court postponed the final verdict to Monday.
