Jewish settler groups intend on Thursday evening to march en masse to the Ibrahimi Mosque to participate in loud musical rituals to be held to celebrate the takeover of the Islamic holy site following the 1994 massacre.
Extremist settlers have started gradually to hold celebratory rituals every year since the Israeli occupation authority decided to Judaize the Ibrahimi Mosque and allow Jews to desecrate it after an armed US-born settler named Baruch Goldstein stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of al-Khalil during a Ramadan Friday prayer On February 25 1994 and opened fire at Muslim worshipers murdering 29 of them and wounding over 100 others.
The Islamic Waqf Authority in al-Khalil has strongly denounced the settlers’ intent to hold musical celebration at the Ibrahimi Mosque saying such sacrilegious behavior would violate the Islamic sanctity of the holy place.
The Waqf Authority appealed to the UNESCO which registered the Old City of al-Khalil and the Ibrahimi Mosque as endangered Palestinian heritage sites to intervene to prevent such Israeli practices at the holy site.
