During the June 1967 war, the Israelis bombarded the Holy City of Jerusalem. The central gate of Al Aqsa mosque was shattered. One of the Al Aqsa minarets received a direct hit and its dome was damaged. After the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, Israelis held demonstrations, dancing festivals and immoral parties in the sacred area of Haram Al-Sherif. The gates of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque were opened for Jewish tourists of both sexes with their dogs. Men and women entered these holy places dressed in shorts and committed acts of indecency, disrespect and desecration.

Israel dynamited 135 buildings and Mosques owned by Muslim Waqfs in old Jerusalem in order to clear the way for a square in front of Al Buraq, the Western Wall of Al Aqsa Mosque.

On August 26, 1967, fourteen Muslim and Christian leaders of Jerusalem submitted a memorandum to the personal representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in which they described the desecration by Israelis of Muslim and Christian Holy Places. Paragraph 7 of that memorandum states:

The Israeli authorities did not respect the sanctity of Muslim and Christian religious shrines and thus forced the custodian of the Holy Places to close some of the churches. Moreover, the Chief Rabbi of the Israeli army. Brigadier Goren, conducted a prayer, together with some followers, in the Haram Al-Sherif (Holy Mosque), thus blatantly offending Muslim susceptibilities and infringing upon their established rights, while the Minister for religions in Israel announced that the Muslim Mosque is Jewish property, and that sooner or later they will rebuild their temple there. Finally, the Minister of religious Affairs announced its intention of expanding the Wailing Wall area by destroying some of the Muslim buildings surrounding it, and constructing a synagogue there, in contravention of the status quo, and in an outright violation of the rights of Muslims and Muslim Waqf.

Source: Encyclopedia of Palestine Problem by Issa Nakhleh.