RAMALLAH, May 23, 2018 (WAFA) – Palestinians condemned on Wednesday a picture of Jerusalem Jewish settler groups presented to the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, showing the holy city with the famous view of the Dome of Rock replaced by a Jewish temple and Friedman smiling while receiving it.

Government spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud attacked Friedman describing his act as “reckless and racist arrogance.”

He said that Freidman “happily received from an extremist like him” a forged picture of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The picture, he said, is an  indictment against the ambassador US President Donald Trump has appointed in Israel for dealing with “forgeries and falsifying facts.”

Mahmoud Habbash, chief religious justice and advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas for religious affairs, also strongly criticized the picture saying it was a “provocative and racist” act and an incitement to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Describing Friedman as a “terrorist settler,” Habbash said the goal behind the picture is to erase and expel the Palestinians from Jerusalem.” He warned that successive Israeli steps in Jerusalem  pave the way for a religious war.

Both Habbas and al-Mahmoud called on the Arab and Islamic countries to take a stand against what happened “to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque against conspiracy and crimes led by the United States against the Muslims’ first Qibla and third holiest mosque on earth.”

Muslim religious figures and institutions in Jerusalem have also condemned the picture and Friedman’s  behavior demanding in a statement on Wednesday from the US to withdraw its ambassador whom they said “provoke Muslims on their holiest places in our holy land and Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is a pure Muslim right not open for sharing or division with any party.”

They called on the US to apologize to the Muslim nation openly and clearly and to reaffirm its neutrality and respect for the historical “statiko” of the holy places in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, warning that such acts could trigger a religious war that no one can predict how it will end.

M.K.