WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s authorities began ‘renovating’ the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil on Monday, implementing the Judaization project that includes building corridors and the installation of an elevator to facilitate access for Zionist settlers.
The Zionist troops aim to seize approximately 300 square meters of the mosque’s courtyards and facilities, with two million shekels ($0.62 million) having been allocated to fund the project so far, reported Arab48.
Last May, then Zionist war minister Naftali Bennett issued an expropriation order for a portion of the Ibrahimi Mosque as part of a project to build an elevator to facilitate settlers’ access to the Muslim house of worship.
The municipality has been demanding that the project be stopped because the construction will be on land it owns together with the Palestinian Waqf (Religious Endowment) Islamic Trust. However, the occupying regime’s so-called supreme court rejected a petition filed by the Al-Khalil Municipality earlier this year in March.
The occupying regime’s plan to seize the Ibrahimi Mosque goes against international laws. In 2017, UNESCO included the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Old City of Al-Khalil as a Palestinian heritage site.
The Judaization project is being operated by the regime’s engineering and construction department and is expected to last about six months.
All of settlements and settlers are on Palestinian land and are illegal according to international law.