Cairo, Aug. 20 (Petra)– Al-Azhar Al-Sharif has condemned the Israeli
occupation’s decision to open tenders for the construction of around
1,200 settlement units in the E1 area east of Jerusalem in the
occupied West Bank.

In a statement, Al-Azhar said the plan constitutes an “open act of
land theft” and a blatant aggression aimed at isolating Jerusalem and
completely severing it from its geographical surroundings, while
fragmenting the occupied West Bank and undermining the Palestinian
people’s right to establish an independent state on their land, with
Jerusalem as its capital.

Al-Azhar stressed that the settlement expansion carried out by the
Israeli government constitutes systematic aggression and a flagrant
violation of international resolutions. It said such actions would
not have continued without what it described as the international
community’s failure and its troubling silence toward policies aimed
at imposing facts on the ground and seizing Palestinian land.

It called on the international community and United Nations
institutions to take deterrent and binding measures to curb Israeli
settlement expansion and hold Israel accountable for its violations
against Palestinian land and people.

Al-Azhar also renewed its call on all free nations and people of
conscience to stand with the steadfast Palestinian people and support
their legitimate and inalienable rights.

//Petra// MF