- CAIRO: Egypt’s Grand Mufti, the country’s top Islamic cleric, paid a rare visit to Jerusalem Wednesday, breaking with decades of opposition by Muslim leaders on traveling to areas under Israeli control.
Mufti Ali Gomaa wrote on his Twitter account that his visit was in solidarity with the Palestinians’ claim to the eastern part of the disputed city, under Israel’s control since it captured the city in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians claim the eastern part of the city for their future state.
Gomaa called the trip an unofficial visit, clearly an attempt to diffuse criticism he is already facing for breaking an unofficial ban by Muslim clerics and most Egyptian professional and private associations on visiting Israel or Israeli-controlled Palestinian territories. The Egyptian Coptic Church, and most Muslim clerics around the region generally uphold the ban as well.
Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, but most Egyptians view the Jewish state as their nation’s top enemy, shunning dealings with Israeli authorities.