ISRAEL FM’S VISIT TO IBRAHIMI MOSQUE PROMPTS OUTRAGE

West Bank, 25 Jumadil Awwal 1436/16 March 2015 (MINA) –  A visit by hardline Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to a mosque in the occupied West Bank has stirred outage among the Palestinian community.

On Sunday, Lieberman entered the Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), located 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of al-Quds (Jerusalem) amid tight security measures.

“The incursion was limited to the side of the mosque that is under Israeli control and lasted for about a half hour,” Ismael Halaweh, the head of al-Khalil’s religious endowment office, said,  Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic  News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

“During the incursion, the gates separating the mosque from the Palestinian market of the Old City were sealed, amid strong presence from Israeli security forces. Lieberman is trying to use al-Ibrahimi Mosque incursion as a campaign ploy,” Halaweh added.

The visit by the 56-year-old leader of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) right-wing party comes just two days before general elections in Israel, and followed an earlier one on Thursday night.

An opinion survey on March 10 revealed that the opposition Zionist Union is edging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party in the March 17 elections.

The poll conducted by Israeli research institute Panel Politics found that Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union, which identifies itself as center-leftist, could earn 24 seats against Likud’s 21 projected seats in the Knesset (Israeli parliament).

On March 12, Netanyahu acknowledged that his Likud party risks losing the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Ibrahimi Mosque is the second holiest Islamic site in Palestinian territory after al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds. It is also Judaism’s second-holiest site after the Temple Mount, and also a place of veneration for Christians.

The mosque was divided into Muslim and Jewish sections by the Israeli regime’s Shamgar Committee after a 1994 massacre that killed 29 Muslim worshippers and left 150 others wounded.

Since then, Israeli authorities have violated Muslims’ rights in the Ibrahimi Mosque under the pretext of marking Jewish holidays, and restricted Muslims from praying in the mosque. Israeli officials have also banned the call to prayers for the evening and night worship times.

Radical Israeli settlers have at times desecrated this holy mosque and ridiculed the Muslims there.

Extremist settlers are said to be trying to bar Muslims from entering the Ibrahimi Mosque and are attempting to transform it into a synagogue. (T/P010/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)