Al-Aqsa imam condemns Israel's policy of demolishing mosques

Dr Yusuf Juma Salama, a preacher at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, has denounced the demolition of the El Sahwa mosque in the Negev by Israeli forces on Sunday and called for the policy of destroying mosques to be halted.

In a written statement, Sheikh Salama, who is the First Vice-President of the Islamic High Authority in Jerusalem said, “The actions of the Israeli authorities; the demolition of the mosque and the destruction of its contents constitutes a major criminal act, as it has resulted in the complete obliteration of the mosque under the pretext of unauthorized construction.”

According to Sheikh Salama, “These criminal acts are nothing new. There have been numerous previous incidents and attacks in which the Israeli authorities have destroyed dozens of mosques within the Palestinian Territories occupied in 1948 and have converted them into museums, parks, restaurants, synagogues, car parks, places of entertainment and debauchery. The occupation authorities have also demolished and bulldozed graves in the occupied territories under false pretences – all of these incidents contradict religious teachings, the laws that guarantee freedom of worship and the duty to respect and preserve the holy places.”

Salama clarified that this attack formed “part of a series of Israeli aggressions against our people in the Palestinian Territories occupied in 1948 having already applied the Absentee Property Law against them and confiscated their properties as well as endowment lands within the Green Line.”