Fatwa Council condemns "excavations" under the Al-Aqsa Mosque as “vain attempts to find proof of their presence”

“The [Palestinian] Supreme Fatwa Council… called on the residents of Jerusalem, Hebron, and Palestine, and everyone who can to come to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs) in order to carry out Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) there, increase the presence there, and fill them with prayer and devotion to the service of Allah.

The council also condemned the excavation operations that the occupation authorities are carrying out with full vigor under the ground of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has caused cracks and extensive landslides in Hawsh Al-Nayrasat in the Chain Gate [neighborhood] inside the Old City [of Jerusalem] (sic., see note below regarding Arab claims of damage caused by Israeli excavations). This is amid vain attempts to find proof of their presence, and they will not succeed in doing this regardless of how much they try to erase its [Jerusalem’s Arab] identityand exaggerate in crimes, aggression, and falsifying the facts.”

Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem are endangered by excavations