Israel closes Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims for Jewish holiday


October 9, 2019
JFJFP

Closed entrance to Ibrahimi Mosque

The Palestine Chronicle reports:

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has called for action against the Israeli occupation authorities’ decision to close the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron (Al-Khalil) for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

Undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, Husam Abu Al-Rob, said the Ibrahimi Mosque needs to be “rescued” to bring an end to all the damage that is inflicted on it on a daily basis.

The occupation’s policies regarding the Ibrahimi Mosque are “provocative, with malicious ambitions and intentions”, Al-Rob warned, adding that there have been 52 incidents in the past month in which the call to prayer was prevented at the Muslim holy site.  He described the closure of the site and its “desecration” by “settlers” as “a blatant attack on Muslims and every Islamic site.”

Al-Rob stated that Israel seeks to take full control of the mosque and regularly increases Jewish access to it.  Last month, Israeli authorities closed the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshippers for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.  ast year 15,000 settlers stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque ahead of Yom Kippur, or the “Day of Atonement”.

The Ibrahimi Mosque, believed to be the burial place of the Prophet Abraham, is sacred to both Muslims and Jews and has been the site of oft-violent tensions for decades.

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