RAMALLAH, April 8, 2012 (WAFA) – The Palestinian presidency Sunday praised the Islamic Yemini scholar Ali Al-Jifri’s visit to East Jerusalem despite previous religious rulings prohibiting non-Palestinians from visiting Jerusalem as long as it is occupied by Israel.

President Mahmoud Abbas Political Advisor, Nimer Hammad, said Abbas and the Palestinian leadership express the outmost respect and appreciation to Al-Jifri’s position in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Several scholars, the latest of whom is the Islamic scholar and theologian Yusuf Qaradawi, issued rulings prohibiting non-Palestinians, whether they were Muslims or not, from visiting Jerusalem while it is occupied under the pretext it is “a form of normalization of relations with Israel.”

Hammad stressed that al-Jifri’s visit emphasizes that East Jerusalem was and will always be Islamic and Christian, despite all the Israeli occupation efforts to judaize the holy city.

R.Q./F.R.