<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Rabat al-Kurd: Where the “Little Kotel” Fits into the Plan to Judaize&nbsp;Jerusalem]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>15.02.11 &#8211; 15:47</p>
<p>Jerusalem – Maysa Abu Ghazala – PNN/Exclusive &#8211; Rabat al-Kurd has  stood in relative silence near the Iron Gate and al-Aqsa Mosque for  years. It is the foundation for several homes in danger of collapse. Now  Jewish worshippers have begun to dug under the site to create “Little  Kotel,” an extension of the Western Wall.</p>
<div class="mosimage" style="float:right;border-width:2px;"><img title="Image" src="https://i2.wp.com/english.pnn.ps/images/stories/2008/jerusalem.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" hspace="6" width="140" height="111" /></p>
<div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align:center;">(PNN Archive)</div>
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<p>Rabat  al-Kurd, part of the Shihabi Enclosure named for the Shihabi family  that first inhabited it, is known as one of the most important  neighborhoods in the Old City of Jerusalem, one of the only exposed  sections of the western wall of al-Aqsa Mosque. It has withstood a  number of assaults by the Israeli occupation, including the digging of a  tunnel underneath it in the 1970s.</p>
<p><strong>Head of the High Islamic Council</strong></p>
<p>Sheikh  Ukrama Sabri of the High Islamic Council describes Rabat al-Kurd as “an  indispensable part of al-Aqsa Mosque.” He says it has adjoined the wall  since the year 1293 and is under the protection of the Isalmic waqf  (religious endowments authority). The assault on it, he claims, is an  assault on al-Aqsa Mosque and the waqf itself.</p>
<p>“The removal of  the iron foundations from under the Shihabi Enclosure is designed to  obliterate the Islamic face of the city and give preference to Judaism,”  he explains. “This is despite the fact that the Jews do not have  heritage or history in Jerusalem. They want to hunt down and steal the  Islamic heritage, to counterfeit and fabricate and twist history. They  want to create something new put of Rabat al-Kurd.”</p>
<p>Sabri  denounces the digging under Rabat al-Kurd, saying such is “the  responsibility of all Arabs and Muslims,” that there is no solution  except the end of the occupation. He demands a strategy to protect  Jerusalem and implement the decisions held at a recent summit in Libya.</p>
<p>“We  read in the papers about Moskovich the Jew,” said Sabri, referring to a  rich American Jewish patron of illegal settlement in East Jerusalem.  “Where is the Arab Moskovich to rescue Jerusalem?”</p>
<p><strong>Chief of Heritage and Manuscripts at al-Aqsa</strong></p>
<p>Digging  deeper into the history of Rabat al-Kurd, says Dr. Najeh Bakeerat, the  head of the Manuscripts and Heritage department at al-Aqsa Mosque and  head of the al-Aqsa Heritage Academy, one will find that the  neighborhood is named after al-Sayfi Kurd, a local appraiser and head of  an Egyptian monastery.</p>
<p>The currently standing two-storey  building was used as a guesthouse for pilgrims who had come to al-Aqsa,  like Rabat al-Mansouri during the Mamluk period and Rabat al-Mugharib  near the Morocco Gate.</p>
<p>“To turn Rabat al-Kurd into this Little  Kotel prayer area is very dangerous for the Morocco Gate,” says  Bakeerat. “The Israeli authority closed the way from the Morocco Gate  and they want to close the way from the Iron Gate. By that I mean all  the area between the Chain Gate, the Cotton Gate, and al-Matahara,  including the al-Tankaziya school.”</p>
<p>Al-Bakeerat thinks Rabat  al-Kurd will be turned into an army checkpoint from which Zionist  expansion near the west side of al-Aqsa will be inevitable. He insists  it is not an issue of Rabat al-Kurd’s iron foundations, but one of  Judaization in “Kotel Katan.”</p>
<p><a href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=9561&amp;Itemid=">PNN &#8211; Palestine News Network &#8211; Rabat al-Kurd: Where the “Little Kotel” Fits into the Plan to Judaize Jerusalem</a>.</p>
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