A national campaign against the siege on al-Khalil Old City has announced the launch of events to commemorate the anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre which occurred in 1994.
Human rights activist Farid al-Atrash said that the campaign called on the Palestinians in the city to participate en masse in the Friday prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque which is encircled by barriers and security gates.
Atrash told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that “the Old City of al-Khalil and its Ibrahimi Mosque have been under tight siege since the 1994 massacre” warning of an Israeli plan to Judaize the Mosque and turn it into a synagogue.
He called on the Palestinian citizens in the West Bank to intensify their presence at the Mosque and the Old City to thwart any Israeli plot targeting them.
The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre was a shooting terrorist attack carried out by Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein.
Goldstein was an American immigrant to Israel who was active in the extremist Kach political movement in the nearby Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba and he was known to Israeli intelligence. He was found and beaten to death by a crowd soon after the massacre.
The Israeli government has maintained that Goldstein acted alone but numerous witnesses at the time reported seeing two to three attackers.
