Al-Azhar headquarters in Cairo. Al-Ahram
In a statement issued on Sunday, Al-Azhar Observatory stated that the Israeli occupation municipality in Jerusalem, in cooperation with several Zionist institutions, announced the organization of a "Judaization sports marathon" in the city next Friday, 8 March, with the participation of 35 thousand Jews from inside and outside the occupied territories.
“The annual marathon will be held with double protection from the occupation forces and police, as the extremist mayor (Moshe Leon) announced that he would exempt occupation soldiers and their families from registration fees, especially those criminals who practice ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.
The Observatory added that as a security measure for this event, which extends to the borders of the walls of Jerusalem, the occupation police will close most of the main streets to Jerusalemites before Friday prayers from three in the morning until two in the afternoon on Friday.
The Al-Azhar Observatory affirmed that the timing of the alleged organization of the sports marathon coincides with the arrival of thousands of Palestinians and Jerusalemites to occupied Jerusalem to perform Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli measures would hinder access to the mosque, according to the Observatory.
“Through these events, the occupation seeks to falsify history and geography and exploit sports to propagate terms derived from the Torah instead of Arabic and Islamic terms to erase the Arab identity and dilute Palestinian culture,” Al-Azhar Observatory said.
The Observatory also noted that the Zionist occupation's determination to hold such an event also aims to cover up the ongoing genocide and massacres in Gaza. It accused the occupation of attempting to whitewash its tarnished image abroad at the expense of provoking the religious sentiments of Muslims.
Egypt has officially called for preserving occupied East Jerusalem’s identity and has rejected all attempts to alter the identity of the city.
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