Jews lobby 'to remove Al-Aqsa Mosque'

Extremist Jewish organizations in Israel have demanded that the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock from East Jerusalem Al-Quds be transferred to Mecca.

Gershon Salomon is seeking the removal of the mosques from East Jerusalem Al-Quds, which Israel occupied during the 1967 aggression and illegally annexed it later despite international opposition, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Wednesday.

The founder and leader of the ultra-Orthodox Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement plans to have Israeli engineers transfer the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock to the Muslims' holy city of Mecca, the daily added.

The Israeli paper also quoted ultra-right Yehuda Etzion, who is associated with Israeli spy agencies, as saying that blowing up of the Muslim sanctities would become 'inevitable' to if Tel Aviv fails to dissemble and transfer the edifices.

Etzion was jailed for five years in the 1980s for a plot to explode the mosques on the Noble Sanctuary (Haram al-Sharif), and has vowed he would do the same again.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque has been attacked by extremist Jews over the past week while the mosque compound was sealed off to Muslim worshipers.

Israel also deployed thousands of troops in the area to quell demonstrations by Palestinians protesters who accused Tel Aviv of efforts to take away the Islamic-Palestinian identity of the Muslims' third holy site.

Jordan, who enjoys the right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem Al-Quds under a 1994 peace treaty, demanded last week that Israel keep Jewish extremists away from the compound and keep the Mugrabi Gate closed.