Remembering the arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque 1969

 

In the morning of 21 August 1969, a Christian Australian extremist, Denis Michael Rohan, started a fire fuelled by kerosene in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

 A fire trucks from the surrounding west bank cities arrived, the israeli occupation forces prevented them from reaching the scene . So, people : Muslim and Christians rushed to the mosque to quell the flmaes.

As the news of the inferno spread, heated demonstrations took place throughout the city. The whole of occupied Jerusalem went on strike. 

Rohan, who had been in "Israel" on a tourist visa, was arrested two days later. He pleaded insanity and was deported. The arson attack was one of several assault on the flashpoint site since Israel's occupation  of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Some other attacks that took place : In, an Israel soldier indiscriminately opened fire on worshipers inside the mosque, killing two and wounding six others.

In October of 1990, Israel police killed 21 Palestinian and injured scores during clashes that erupted when Jewish extremists tried to place the foundation stone of a Jewish temple inside the mosque.