PA Mufti issues religious ruling banning those who normalize relations with Israel from praying at Al-Aqsa Mosque
Headline: “The Mufti of Palestine to Anadolu agency: Visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the framework of the normalization agreement is ‘forbidden’”
“[PA] Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories [and Palestinian Supreme Fatwa Council Chairman] Sheikh Muhammad Hussein issued a fatwa (i.e., religious ruling) determining that praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the framework of the normalization agreement between Israel and the UAE is ‘forbidden’ (see note below –Ed.).
Hussein said in an exclusive statement to the [Turkish state-run news] agency Anadolu: ‘Praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque is open to all those who arrive through the legal Palestinian gate, and not to those who carry out normalization.’ …
He added: ‘We said in a previous fatwa that it is forbidden to cooperate with the deal of the century (i.e., refers to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan). And normalization is one of the expressions of this deal, which everything that has arrived through it is forbidden and invalid.’ …
The Mufti of Palestine called on those who claim that it is important to them ‘to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque and pray inside it’ to work to put an end to the occupation of the mosque, if they are indeed sincere in their claim.
Sheikh Muhammad Hussein continued: ‘Visiting [the mosque] in the framework of normalization is forbidden, because this constitutes an implementation of the deal of the century. [The deal] means abandoning Jerusalem, because one of its clauses determines that Jerusalem is the capital of the Israeli entity, and as part of that, it follows that the holy sites are too.’”
Israel-UAE peace agreement (Abraham Accords)