Activists have unraveled underway Israeli efforts to turn a historical mosque in Majdal city in territories occupied in 1948 into a museum and a liquor store.
A video posted on Facebook by activists from the so-called “Eraf Watanak” group shows the transformations made by the Israeli authorities who turned the mosque into a wine shop and an artistic exhibition hall.
Documents attached to the video show that the mosque dates back to the Ottoman era and that it was established following the liberation of Jerusalem by Salah al-Deen al-Ayoubi.
“This is another proof of Israeli plans to violate the sanctity of holy shrines” Lawyer Khaled Zabarqa said. “The mosque still carries signs of its Islamic origin; it still has a minaret a mihrab (a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla that is the direction of the Kaaba in Makkah and hence the direction that Muslims should face when praying) and a minbar (a pulpit in the mosque where the imam stands to deliver sermons).
“To open a bar and a restaurant in the mosque is a dangerous violation of the sanctity of the site and a provocation to adherents of Islam everywhere in the world” he further stated calling on the concerned institutions to immediately step in and cease such Israeli aggressions.
