22 February 2019•Update: 23 February 2019
By Abdel Raouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM
For the first time in 16 years, Palestinians on Friday prayed at the Bab al-Rahma Mosque, located inside East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.
The Israeli authorities closed the mosque in 2003. In 2017, an Israeli court upheld the closure order.
But on Friday, the Religious Endowments Authority, a Jordan-run agency mandated with overseeing East Jerusalem’s Muslim and Christian holy sites, announced the reopening of the mosque after a 16-year hiatus.
Religious Endowments Authority director Sheikh Abdul Azim Salhab ceremoniously opened the doors of the mosque, in which grateful worshipers performed Friday prayers.
On Monday, the Israeli authorities closed the Al-Rahma Gate, which leads to the mosque of the same name, preventing hundreds of Palestinian worshippers from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina.
Earlier Friday, Israeli police arrested dozens of Palestinians in and around the flashpoint site in hopes of preempting anticipated demonstrations against the gate’s continued closure.
