Israel prevents Farrakhan from visiting al-Aqsa

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, currently visiting Jordan, has called upon the Islamic nation and the world to support the Palestinian people against Israeli intransigence, adding that the Palestinians have rights to establish an independent state and to self-determination.

In a press conference he held in Amman today, Farrakhan said that US President Bill Clinton and the European states have to pressure Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and threaten to cut US aid to Israel unless he halts the building of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He expressed deep regret over the sufferings of the Palestinian people he saw during his visit to the Palestinian self-rule territories.

While in the West Bank earlier in the day, Farrakhan said he would head from Ramallah directly to Allenby Bridge without passing through al-Aqsa mosque as planned. Israeli military radio said in a statement at a Ramallah hotel earlier in the day that the Israeli authorities prevented him from visiting the mosque.

Meanwhile an advisor to the Israeli prime minister, David Bar-Ilan, threatened to arrest the US black Moslem leader if he violates Israeli laws.

In a statement to the same radio, the Israeli official accused Farrakhan of being anti-Jew, anti-Judaism, and anti-Semitic. He regretted that Farrakhan bears a US passport -- a matter which forces Israel to host him despite the fact that he is persona non-grata.

Farrakhan had in previous statements on his visit to Iraq called US sanctions against the Iraqi people as state terrorism, and called for lifting these sanctions.