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Settlers urge Israel to hold Cabinet meeting in Ibrahimi Mosque

July 11, 2017 at 4:15 pm

Israeli settlers march with Israeli flags in East Jerusalem [Ma’an News]

Settlers have urged the Israeli Cabinet to hold a meeting at the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron in defiance of UNESCO’s recent ruling that it is a Palestinian heritage site.

The UN cultural body last week deemed the Old City of Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque an endangered Palestinian site, despite an Israeli campaign to block the vote.

In response, yesterday settlers called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold a Cabinet meeting at the site in order to reinforce Israel’s ties to the region, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Read: UNESCO declares Hebron Old City a World Heritage Site

In a letter to Netanyahu, a settler community leader in the occupied West Bank, Avi Ro’eh, said: “We have to say in a clear voice that the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Hebron, which is the city of our forefathers, is eternally ours.” The Tomb of the Patriarchs is what Jews call the Ibrahimi Mosque.

#UNESCOvote

The calls come months after the Israeli Cabinet convened in a tunnel under Al-Aqsa mosque, justified by Netanyahu as a move “to mark the liberation and unification of Jerusalem”. However, the Palestinian Authority labelling the move “provocative” as East Jerusalem has been under occupation since 1967.