AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has condemned a planned ceremony at a cemetery in the occupied Al-Quds, saying the event organized by American Zionist groups desecrates the historic Muslim graveyard and violates international law.
The ceremony will take place on Monday at the historic Mamilla cemetery in West Al-Quds, home to the graves of Muslim leaders and residents of the city for more than a thousand years.
It is arranged by a number of high-ranking U.S. officials from the administration of former president Donald Trump, led by ex-ambassador to the occupied territories David Friedman and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it considers the ceremony a provocative attack on the Muslim cemetery and a flagrant violation of international law and conventions.
It also criticized the construction of the so-called Museum of Tolerance affiliated with the American Zionist Simon Wiesenthal Foundation on a part of the cemetery, which has been underway since 2010 with official Zionist support despite objections by Al-Quds residents and petitions submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council and UNESCO.
International organizations should condemn and put a stop to the continuous violations of Palestinian political, cultural, historical, legal and religious rights in the Al-Quds, the future capital of the Palestinian state, it added.
Palestine’s Chief Islamic Justice Mahmoud al-Habbash said in a statement that the planned ceremony constitutes a full-fledged war crime as it constitutes a blatant assault on the remains of Palestinian ancestors and a grave insult to all Muslims.
In an earlier development, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas warned that any Zionist attempt to impose division at the Al-Aqsa Mosque will have “damaging consequences” for the occupying regime.
In a statement issued on Friday on the 31st anniversary of the Aqsa massacre, which was committed by Zionist troops, the resistance movement strongly warned the Tel Aviv regime of committing any attempt to change the status quo of the Al-Aqsa compound, the third holiest site in Islam.
“We restate our commitment to protect and defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the 31st anniversary of the Al-Aqsa massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation, motivated by Israeli settler groups who thought the Al-Aqsa compound was an easy prey and that the chance had come up to lay the foundation stone for their alleged temple,” Hamas stated.
On October 8, 1990, thousands of Zionist settlers marched on the Al-Aqsa Mosque to place the foundation stone of their alleged third temple inside the mosque.
The provocative move infuriated Palestinians who were present at the mosque and those who were outside, prompting them to bar settlers from achieving their goal.