PA Minister says renovations to make the Cave of the Patriarchs handicapped accessible poses an "unprecedented severe existential danger" to the site

Headline: “Al-Bakri: An unprecedented existential danger threatens the Ibrahimi Mosque”

“[PA] Minister of Religious Affairs Hatem Al-Bakri warned against the severity of the attack that the occupation army and its settlers are waging in turns against the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron, as part of a planned plot (refers to renovations to make the site handicapped accessible -Ed.). He estimated that the severe danger is connected to an attempt to completely take control of the site and contaminate the structure so as to hide the Islamic construction style, in a manner that matches the [occupation’s] false narrative.

Al-Bakri said he thinks that the Ibrahimi Mosque is being exposed to an unprecedented existential threat, and that the supporting pillar of the battle to defend it is blocking the plan whose goal is to cause the public to despair of entering it, and this is by increasing the popular presence inside it…

In an interview with [the official PA daily] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the minister of religious affairs concluded that the Ibrahimi Mosque is part of the Islamic faith based on Quranic text, and that the Palestinians will not abandon it and will do all they can to defend it from the incessant massacre against it.”