Israeli authorities within the Occupied West Financial institution are reportedly planning to grab management of the Ibrahimi Mosque, stripping the Palestinian-run Hebron Municipality of administrative duties over the historic holy website.
Identified to Jewish folks because the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the location is positioned within the coronary heart of Hebron’s Outdated Metropolis, which is house to about 200,000 Palestinians and roughly 800 Israeli settlers who’re guarded by 1,500 Israeli troopers. It’s believed to carry the stays of the prophet Abraham and his members of the family and is thus thought of a holy pilgrimage website for the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
One of many oldest prayer websites on the planet, the unique construction dates again about 4,000 years in the past to the Roman period. A Christian basilica was constructed on the location through the Byzantine interval. It was transformed right into a mosque after the Muslim conquest in seventh century CE, integrating Islamic architectural options corresponding to minarets. Within the twelfth century, the Crusaders captured the location and remodeled it right into a Christian church as soon as extra. It was reverted to a mosque in 1187 when Saladin reclaimed town of Hebron, however has been beneath Israeli navy management since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Financial institution.
The inside of the Ibrahimi Mosque in 2014 (photograph Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)
In 1994, Brooklyn-born Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein opened fireplace on Muslim worshippers throughout daybreak prayers, killing 30 folks and wounding greater than 125. After the bloodbath, an Israeli fee referred to as the Shamgar Committee divided the location into two properties, with separate entrances for Jewish and Muslim worshippers.
However like Hebron, the Ibrahimi Mosque has repeatedly been subjected to intrusions and restrictions imposed by Israeli settlers and forces, corresponding to bans on prayers and closures of entrances for Muslim worshippers. Two years in the past, Israeli authorities equally seized management over the location to put in an elevator on the tomb — a transfer that was decried by each Jewish and Muslim worshippers.
The latest choice to grab management over the mosque was made earlier this 12 months when Lieutenant Colonel Ayman Bisan, who leads Israel’s Hebron District Coordination and Liaison Workplace, wrote to Hebron Governor Khaled Dudin threatening to take over the location if points with the construction’s roofing weren’t resolved. On this correspondence, Bissan stated that authority over the location can be transferred to the Nationwide Planning and Constructing Council, an Israeli entity concerned within the development of settlement development within the West Financial institution.
Close to the mosque in central Hebron (photograph Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)
Now, Palestinian officers are reportedly urging UNESCO and the worldwide neighborhood to step in and halt any execution of this new plan. Different governments, together with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have additionally denounced the transfer.
“The Ministry considers this an unprecedented step in Israel’s ongoing efforts to assert sovereignty over the site, Judaize it, and alter its identity and historical features,” the Palestinian Ministry of International Affairs stated in a press release to Center East Eye (MEE).
The ministry additional warned that the transfer can be a “blatant violation of international law” that would probably escalate tensions between Palestinian residents and Israeli settlers in Hebron, based on MEE.
