Fatwa Council Condemns Approval for Establishing a Jewish School in Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood

SadaNews - The Higher Islamic Council in Palestine condemned the Israeli occupation authorities' approval to establish a Jewish school on a large area of citizens' land and homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.

The Council reiterated in a statement issued today, Thursday, its rejection of the systematic Israeli procedures and violations aimed at Judaizing the city of Jerusalem, altering its Palestinian identity, and attempting to impose new illegal realities on the ground by manipulating its historical and legal status, leading to serious repercussions in the region.

It pointed out that this escalation comes amid an increasing pace of systematic violations carried out by settler mobs under the protection of Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian lands, which manifest as physical assaults on unarmed citizens, vandalism of their property, arson of their homes, shops, and vehicles, and the cutting down of hundreds of olive trees across various parts of Palestinian territories.

The Council indicated that the crimes of the occupation have reached a horrifying level of brutality and disregard for lives and properties, carried out under full protection from the occupation's army and police for settler mobs eager to kill, who have spread corruption on the earth.

It called on international institutions, led by the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, to quickly intervene to provide international protection for our unarmed people, to put an end to the escalating crimes of settlers against them, to prevent the violation of Palestinian areas, and to stop the region from being drawn into a vortex of violence and instability.

On another note, the Council condemned the continued violation of the sanctity of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings by the occupation authorities and their settlers, through incursions by hundreds of extremist settlers, performing group Talmudic rituals and prostrations within its courtyards, which constitutes a blatant provocation to the feelings of Muslims and a challenge to the Palestinian people who are steadfast in defending the blessed mosque and the holy city, indicating that these incursions carry serious implications, the most notable being the plan to impose Israeli sovereignty over the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid troubling global silence and negligence.

In another context, the Council confirmed the sanctity of spilling Palestinian blood and killing innocents unjustly, emphasizing the necessity to quell sedition and mend the rift, and to unify voices so that our Palestinian people can overcome these tribulations and strife, noting that the greatest loser from internecine conflict is our people and our cause, and the only winner from our disputes and preoccupation with internal conflicts is the occupation that stands on our land.

This came during the 236th session of the Council, chaired by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, during which the jurisprudential issues on its agenda were discussed, with the presence of the esteemed members of the Council from various governorates of the homeland.