The Higher Presidential Committee for Churches Affairs in Palestine strongly condemned the recent Israeli occupation authorities’ assault on the sanity, history and identity of the Ibrahimi mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, by sealing the yard of the Ibrahimi mosque in an attempt to change its character.
Member of the PLO Executive Committee and Head of the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, Dr. Ramzi Khouri, issued a statement stating this act a grave violation of international law and legitimate international resolutions, which recognize Hebron as an occupied Palestinian city and contravene UNESCO’s decision to list the old city and the Ibrahimi Mosque as a World Heritage site in danger, due to settlement activities and declaration of the city to be of outstanding universal values.
The committee emphasized that this aggressive action against the Ibrahimi Mosque is part of broader, Israeli systematic settler and colonial approach based on stealing Palestinian Msulim and Christian sanctities, history and identity.
The committee called on churches worldwide and relevant international organizations to take serious effective steps to pressure the Israeli government to retract its illegal measures against the Ibrahimi Mosque.
Additionally, the committee also called for international protection for all Muslim and Christian holy sites, which face existential threats in an attempt to control them.
The committee labeled these actions as war crimes that the occupying power must be held accountable for.
