Israel is a “falsehood” and former Nazi ally grand mufti was a key “Palestinian symbol,” says Abbas’ religious advisor
Headline: “The 10th International Bait Al-Maqdis Conference concluded by emphasizing the centrality of Jerusalem among the Arabs and Muslims”
“Yesterday Thursday [March 18, 2021], the 10th International Bait Al-Maqdis Conference concluded. [It] was held via [the video conferencing service] Zoom this year due to the health conditions from which the entire world is suffering…
[PA] Prime Minister Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh gave aspeech before the conference, in which he said: ‘Despite all the harassment, our people is standing firm and defending its land, and it is standing against the colonialists. For every olive tree they uproot we will plant ten, and if they destroy ahome we will rebuild it. We are waging the battle for Al-Aqsa Mosque on a daily basis, and we will continue to be loyal to our religion, our holy sites, and our land, and we will defend them with all our strength.’
He said: ‘The Palestinian [PA] government considered 2021 a year of strengthening the narrative regarding Jerusalem and Palestine against the Zionist narrative that is being supported by the Western research centers and media outlets, and similar.’
He continued: ‘The land of Palestine is the land of Bait Al-Maqdis (i.e., Jerusalem) and the land of the resurrection of the dead, where our lord Abraham, the father of the prophets, is buried, while Prophet Muhammad, blessing and peace be upon him, had his Night Journey from the Great Mosque [of Mecca] to the Al-Aqsa Mosque (see note below -Ed.), the first direction of [Muslim] prayer.’
[PA]SupremeShari’ahJudgeofPalestineand[PA]President[MahmoudAbbas’]AdvisoronReligiousAffairsandIslamicRelationsMahmoudAl-Habbashsaid:‘ThePalestiniancauseisacauseforeveryMuslim,anditisatthetopoftheprioritiesoftheArabworldandIslamicworld.’Headded:‘ThePalestiniannarrativeisthetruenarrativeandthetruehistoryofPalestine,anditisbeingsubjectedtodangerousaggressiontoday,suchastheunjustaggressionagainstthePalestinianlandandpeoplethroughinvalidandfalseclaimsthatweremeanttofalsifyhumanawarenessthroughthefalsification of history and the invasion of a series of lies and falsehoods claiming the existence of so-called “Israel” on this land.’
He emphasized that it is necessary to defend the ancient and modern Palestinian narrative and history against falsification and aggression through the falsification of the Palestinian symbols of history and struggle, including Haj Amin Al-Husseini (i.e., former grand mufti of Jerusalem and Nazi ally), Allah’s mercy upon him, who led the first Islamic Shari’ah Council, and who had a prominent role in defending the Palestinian narrative, the Palestinian existence, and the resistance to the colonialist plot seeking to steal the Palestinian land and history.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 19, 2021]
Mahmoud Al-Habbash also serves as Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice. In August 2019 PA Chairman Abbas dismissed all his advisors by Presidential decree. It is unclear what their status is today.
Islam's Prophet Muhammad is said to have ridden during a Night Journey from Mecca to "al aqsa mosque", i.e., "the farthest mosque" (Quran, Sura 17). Five years after Muhammad's death in 632, Jerusalem was conquered by Islamic forces, and in the year 705, Muslim Umayyad leader Abd Al-Malik built a mosque in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. The mosque was subsequently named the Al-Aqsa Mosque, to identify it as the mosque mentioned in the Quran, thus giving significance to Jerusalem in Islam as a place visited once by Muhammad.
Haj Amin Al-Husseini - the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem at the time of the British Mandate. During World War II he moved to Berlin, where he was a Nazi collaborator and an associate of Hitler. Al-Husseini was on Yugoslavia's list of wanted war criminals, and was responsible for a Muslim SS division that murdered thousands of Serbs and Croats. When the Nazis offered to free some Jewish children, Al-Husseini fought against their release, and as a result, 5000 children were sent to the gas chambers.