PALESTINE FILE OIC Ramallah Office’s Workshop Warns that Al-Quds is Exposed to 100 excavations A workshop organized by the office of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Palestine at the headquarters of the Popular National Conference For Jerusalem in Ramallah on December 10, 2019, stated that more than a hundred excavations have been carried out under the occupied Al-Quds since the Israeli occupation of the city in 1967. The workshop stressed that these include four excavations under and around the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, And 5 below the old town, in addition to five others below the town of Silwan, and eight in other separate locations, as well as 57 holes and tunnels that penetrate the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. The organization, in cooperation with the Islamic-Christian Committee for Supporting Jerusalem and the Holy Sites, helorganized the workshop entitled “Israeli Excavations ... Search for Illusions of Establishing a Jewish City”, with the participation of representatives from the official of Al-Quds city authorities and experts on Al-Quds affairs. Ambassador Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi, Director of the Representative Office of the OIC in Palestine, in a speech delivered on behalf of the Secretary General of the Organization, Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen, indicated that the sponsorship of the symposium comes within the framework of media and cultural efforts that the organization seeks to launch periodically to highlight the Islamic and Arab identity of Jerusalem and address Israeli policies aimed at Judaizing it, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the organization. Al-Ruwaidi stressed the commitment of OIC to enhance communication with Jerusalemites to empower them and to also to follow up the ongoing attacks by the occupation against them and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He added that the OIC would continue to work to coordinate positions and efforts to mobilize and defend international support, and to express absolute refusal to changing the legal and historical status of Al-Aqsa. Al-Ruwaidi considered as irresponsible the attitudes of some countries that recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that
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the settlements are consistent with international law.e Islamic-Christian Committee for Supporting Jerusalem and the Holy Sites said that the most dangerous issue about the decision of the US President Trump on 6-12-2017 is not only the transfer of the capital, but declaring the city of Jerusalem as Jewish, and thus deny the Christian and Islamic presence in it, indicating that what the occupation is doing under Jerusalem is building a whole city under Al-Aqsa. He pointed out that there are 29 settlements in the city of Jerusalem, 15 of which are in the eastern part and the rest in the west. As for Al-Quds, there are 43 settlements aiming to change the nature of the city through excavations taking place in full swing, and the Al-Aqsa area is now surrounded by 105 Jewish synagogues. Note that there are 107 mosques in Jerusalem, 43 of which are in the Old City, and 95 churches. Issa continued: “All of this comes within a programmed framework aimed at emptying the city of Jerusalem of its indigenous people, creating a new Jewish character, and establishing the greater capital of Israel on an area of 600 square kilometers.” For his part, General Bilal Al-Natsheh, Secretary General of the Popular National Conference For Jerusalem said: “The division of Jerusalem aims primarily at stopping Arab from gatherings in it, which is what Israel considers a burden on it and its public budget, and fears that one day it will wake up to Jerusalem with an Arab majority.”
On his part, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian homes, Muhammad Hussein, said: “In all the eras that the Arabs have maintained their presence in Jerusalem, they have proven that Jerusalem is theirs, despite all the nations and invaders that passed by, including today that the occupation is conducting excavations in the city.” He explained that the excavations began in Jerusalem before 1967, and researchers realize that it started through a British school of archeology that was present in Jerusalem and its beginning was in the Wadi Hilweh region, and then continued to demolish the Mughrabi neighborhood, which the Israeli occupation turned to a gateway for aggression. Deputy Governor of Al-Quds city Abdullah Siyam said: The excavations are a big plan, part of the procedures of displacement and killing, and the pressures faced by the Jerusalemites with a continuous program around Jerusalem that consists in expelling its people, displacing settlers, and closing institutions, until it became a daily scene by subjecting people to judaization under the American bias. He stressed that the excavations started by the occupation with a religious research story, concluded in destructive measures not only in the Old City, but in Jerusalem as a whole, to link the Old City with its surrounding settlements, calling for positions that translate to real actions to address this scheme.
OIC Journal Sept - Dec 2019
21
