The MoroccanCommissionto Support the Nation’s Causes slammed the Palestinian Authority (PA) chaired by Mahmoud Abbas for handing over the al-Mascoubiya Church to the Russians.
PA police used teargas to disband hundreds of protesters in al-Sabta area and cordoned off the environs of the al-Mascoubiya church after they declared it a closed military zone. Several protesters were also arrested on claims of inciting riots.
The decision by the PA to hand over a church built on Palestinian land to an envoy of the Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in Occupied Jerusalem sparked widespread furor among the Muslim and Christian communities across the occupied Palestinian territories and overseas.
The forfeited church covers an area of 73 dunums of Islamic land in the southern occupied West Bank province of al-Khalil. It dates back to hundreds of years ago and has long been known as part of endowments offered by Tamim Ibn Aws al-Dari one of the companions of the Prophet of Islam Muhammad.
The Moroccan Commission expressed its concern over the move saying there is undeniable historical proof that Prophet Muhammad tasked his companion Tamim Bin Aws al-Dari who was among the first people who adhered to Islam in Palestine to use the land in favor of all generations of Muslims setting up roots in the area.
“The commission expresses its firm rejection of the decision by Mahmoud Abbas to hand over an Islamic property to the Russian missionaries” the statement further read.
The commission called on Arabs and Muslims across the world to take urgent action as regards such an “unacceptable move.”
