100 Algeria preachers call on businesses to support Gaza

More than a hundred Islamic preachers and scholars in Algeria yesterday called on business owners and merchants to allocate part of their income to support the Palestinians and the resistance.

In a letter signed by a number of Muslim scholars, including the head of Association of Algerian Muslim Ulama, a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, vice president of the Association of Arab Maghreb Scholars, and the head of the Union of Imams in Algeria.

The signatories stated that “since the month of Ramadan, the Palestinian people have been witnessing an aggression that led to shedding the blood of innocent children and women, demolishing homes and violating the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque,” while calling for “support for the struggling Palestinian people, providing all kinds of material and moral assistance for the valiant resistance.”

The scholars also demanded the governments of Muslim countries that engaged in overt relations with Israel to withdraw their recognition and permanently cease any kind of ties with the occupation authorities.

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The signatories urged business owners and traders to allocate part of their income to support the Palestinian people and the resistance, and governments to support housing projects and the reconstruction of Gaza.

The scholars and preachers called on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to “rotate and reactivate the chairmanship of the Jerusalem Committee among member states, and not to leave it in the hands of normalisation advocates,” in reference to Morocco.

The Jerusalem Committee is a part of the OIC and has been chaired by Morocco, which announced the resumption of relations with Israel in December in return for America recognising its sovereignty over the Western Sahara region. The decision was part of a wave of normalisation deals that included three other Arab countries, namely the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Sudan.

Israel’s bombing campaign against Gaza displaced more than 75,000 Palestinians, according to the spokesman of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jens Lark. It also killed more than 230 people, including 65 children, and injured over 1,700 others.