Taysir el-Tamimi, Palestine’s chief Islamic judge, called on Muslims and Christians from all over the world to visit Jerusalem to combat the ongoing “Judaization” of the city by Israeli authorities.
“The Palestinian cause is not for the Palestinians alone,” el-Tamimi said at the Fifth International Forum of Al-Azhar Alumni on Sunday. “It is also for all the Muslims and Christians of the world.”
“Religious edicts forbidding Muslim and Christian worshipers from visiting Jerusalem have only served to isolate the city more and allowed Israel to continue with its Judaization schemes,” he added, pointing to a subway tunnel that Israel is reportedly building under Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“Israel has injected the walls of the mosque with certain chemicals that will speed erosion of the building,” he said.
Recently-appointed Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, for his part, said he remained adamant in his refusal to visit Jerusalem under current circumstances. “Visiting the city amounts to an acknowledgment of the Israeli occupation,” he said.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
