Bkeirat: Israel planning to annex Marwani mosque to its heritage list

PIC

[ 09/03/2010 - 10:13 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) is planning to annex the Marwani mosque, within the Aqsa compound, to the so-called Jewish heritage list, Dr. Najeh Bkeirat, the head of the manuscripts and heritage department in the Aqsa Mosque, revealed.

He told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Destour published on Monday that the IOA has started practical steps to annex the Marwani mosque by warning worshipers not to enter it because of cracks and fissures inside it that might lead to its collapse over their heads.

He said that the IOA warning was meant to scare the citizens away from the mosque, recalling that the IOA had circulated similar news in 2000 and 2005 and issued orders banning worshipers from praying inside it.

However, the Islamic Awkaf department made a series of architectural tests and proved that the building was in excellent condition, Bkeirat noted.

He underlined that the IOA excavations in occupied Jerusalem had led to collapses and not only cracks in most of the buildings in Jerusalem, its suburbs and environs, warning that the diggings were posing great danger on all urban neighborhoods in the holy city.

The heritage expert said that the diggings never ceased and that cracks were seen in the Aqsa Mosque's outside walls along with buildings near it, adding that the IOA should be condemned for unilaterally conducting the diggings that ran contrary to the Geneva convention and law of the Hague.

Bkeirat said that the IOA is earmarking 380,000 dollars daily to judaize Jerusalem in the absence of any real financial backing on the part of Arab regimes, championing a five-year plan that would mobilize all potentials to rescue Jerusalem from judaization.

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