Al-Azhar Al-Sharif and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Prof. Ahmed Al-Tayyeb strongly deny and totally reject the US step to move its embassy to the occupied city of Jerusalem, an illegitimate decision widely rejected by the international community. The celebration of the so-called embassy opening coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian catastrophe- a step that strongly stresses the fact that some prefer arrogance and power to the values of justice and righteousness and that shatters world’s peace and creates instability all over its corners.
Al-Azhar feels sorry at the Arab and Islamic disunity that encourages some countries to approve the American decision, declaring thereby that they would move their embassies to Jerusalem, a step disregarding the feelings of more than one billion and half Muslims all over the world who see their and their Christian brothers’ sacred places being violated in an attempt to distort the Holy City’s history, judaize its features and lay siege to its inhabitants in the light of the unprecedented international impotence and weakness supported by the double-standard policy in issuing the international laws and decisions.
Al-Azhar calls upon all the international, Islamic and Arab governments, peoples and institutions believing in the values of justice and freedom to shoulder their national, religious and moral responsibility on Jerusalem and Palestine and to implement the previous laws on these countries that will move their embassies into the occupied Jerusalem. It also calls upon peoples and NGOs to take all the peaceful and civilized means and techniques necessary for expressing their support to Palestine and its people, and for stressing their sheer rejection to the stances of those countries that supported the Zionist entity and neglected thereby the Arab-Palestine right.
In this vein, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif stresses the undeniable fact that Jerusalem is an Arab land with a Palestinian identity, confirming meanwhile that it will continue its course in increasing awareness of the issue of Jerusalem and its ancient Arab history, and will support of the veteran Palestinians’ struggle for liberation and restoration of its land and sacred places, emphasizing that the Arabhood of Jerusalem is the Arabs’ and Muslims’ first and foremost issue that will never die.