IMRA Newsletter
PA Mufti rejects Recognition of Jewish Rights to Western Wall
14 December 2003
Jerusalem Post correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh reported in today's edition that Arafat's appointed mufti of Jerusalem, Ikremah Sabri, said in his Friday sermon at the AL Aksa mosque broadcast on PA radio that "Seventy years ago the Committee of the League of Nations recognized the Burak Wall (Western Wall) as being part of the walls of the Aksa mosque" and thus belongs to the Muslim wakf (religious trust). Sabri went on to attack those who refer to the Burak Wall as the Western Wall.
The following is 23 November, 1997 with the late PA Minister Of Waq And Religious Affairs, Hassan Tahboob:
IMRA: Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem, said recently that the "Al Baraq Wall", known to Jews as the Western Wall, and the plaza before it, is an Islamic Waqf and that the Wall itself is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque. What is the practical ramification of this status?
Tahboob: It was already decided by an international committee that came to Palestine after the events of Baraq in 1929. And there was a case and it was decided that it was Waqf property and it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque of course.
IMRA: What is the practical ramification in terms of the use of that area by the Jews in prayer.
Tahboob: They are allowed to pray towards the Wall. That was the decision. They are allowed to face the Wall two meters from it and to pray as they like.
IMRA: They have to stay two meters away from the Wall.
Tahboob: It is the decision in this way.
IMRA: Right now they pray right up against the Wall.
Tahboob: Right now everything is by force.
IMRA: So the Jews should really be about six feet - two meters - away from the Wall.
Tahboob: Two meters. Really. Yes.
IMRA: So you think that in the future that will be the set-up.
Tahboob: It's supposed to be so.
IMRA: Practically speaking, what do you see happening? Will there be some kind of line drawn on the floor before the Wall or will there be a barrier next to the Wall?
Tahboob: To every accident there is a solution.