52 years ago, on this day, this is what happened at Masjid al-Aqsa..

The arson incident, which occurred just two years after Israel illegally occupied East Jerusalem, incurred significant damage to Masjid al-Aqsa and destroyed the historic minbar of Nur ad-Din Zangi, installed by Salah ad-Din Ayyubi after his liberation of al-Quds in 1187. It also gutted the mosque of Umar, the Mihrab of Zakariyya, the Maqam al-Arbain and three colonnades stretching from the south to the north inside the hall.

Though it absolved itself of blame for the incident, and attributed it entirely to an Australian Christian Zionist, Denis Michael Rohan who it declared mentally unstable, the fact that the Masjid was attacked under its watch, and the Occupation emergency services were notably delayed in their response raised questions about the veracity of the official version, and the involvement of the Occupation in the attack.

In the decades that have passed since then, Masjid al-Aqsa has been the subject of numerous attempts to damage or destroy it. The attacks have been abetted by official Israeli Occupation policies controlling access to the mosque, Judaizing Jerusalem and aiding settlers in their provocative intrusions into the Masjid.

52 years later, the fires are still burning…