Israeli occupation decided Monday, October 2nd, 2023, to seal off the archaeological Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron for two successive days citing celebrations of Jewish holidays as a pretext.
The Muslim holy site will be widely opened only to thousands of colonial Israeli settlers who are given the green light to dance, sing and hold Jewish activities at the site, while it will be closed in the face of Palestinian worshippers and visitors.
Ghassan al-Rajabi, the director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, underscored that the Israeli occupation authorities decided to close the mosque from Monday morning until next Tuesday evening to Palestinian worshipers while allowing full access to settlers to perform their rituals and noisy celebrations.
Al-Rajabi underlined that the Israeli occupation’s plans to Judaize the holy place including the repeated closure of the Mosque for 10 days each year, preventing the call to prayer at various times, and taking full control of 63% of the mosque.
Last September, the call to prayer was banned 60 times in the Mosque, and there was a spike in settlers’ harassment of those coming to pray and in obstructing their movement at military checkpoints.
These days Israeli settlers are celebrating 16-day Jewish holidays, starting mid-September with the Islamic New Year and finally ending on October 7th with the joy of the Torah holiday.
Al-Ibrahimi mosque is a longstanding flashpoint where the Israeli occupation has been attempting to settle its case in favour of Israeli settlers by imposing successive lockdowns, banning the Muslim call to prayer, and opening it wide for Jewish occasions.
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