Ramallah; Palestine National Council (PNC) has taken strong notice of the Judaizing measures taken by the occupying power – Israel – against the Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied city of Hebron, the fourth holy place for Muslims after the two holy mosques in Mecca and Al-Madina, then Al-Aqsa and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Palestine.
Recently, the Israeli occupation authorities have begun to carry out excavations in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi Mosque, claiming to construct a road and an electric elevator for settlers, seize its squares and facilities, and confiscate new areas of its endowment land, with the aim of changing the historical and cultural landmarks of the Mosque, all of which falls within the framework of Judaization, which constitutes a serious harm. It is a violation of the freedom of worship, as it’s a mosque for Muslims only, and this is a non-disputable right.
These settlement measures come, after the occupation forcibly transformed part of the
Ibrahimi Mosque into a synagogue of 67% of its area, and resulted in security measures that stifled the Palestinian presence in the mosque and the Old City of Hebron. We remind you of the massacre committed at dawn in 1994 by the Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein, which killed 29 and wounded 150 others Palestinian Muslim worshipers inside the Ibrahimi Mosque.
The Israeli occupation authorities practice daily violations against the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Old City of Hebron, as it prevents the call to prayer (Athan) in it, prevents Palestinians from reaching and praying there on most days, and opens it to settlers on a daily basis. Israel also expelled the international monitoring mission in Hebron at the beginning of 2019.
NPC has reminded that the State of Palestine registered the Old City of Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2017.
