Qaddoura Faris, head of Nadi Al-Asir (Prisoners Club) and former minister of detainees and ex-detainees, said that the issue of the 200 pilgrims from the West Bank city of Hebron was solved following the intervention of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad with Saudi officials.
Faris said that the 200 pilgrims will receive their visas from the Saudi Embassy in Amman and will travel to Makkah on Wednesday on board Saudi Arabian Airlines.
He added that the 200 invitees will be included in King Abdullah’s initiative to receive 1200 pilgrims as his guests from Hebron and 800 pilgrims from Gaza Strip.
The development came two days after dozens of family members of prisoners, ex-detainees and martyrs from Jerusalem rallied outside the house of Fayyad. They accused Palestinian Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash of removing their names from the list of pilgrims after they were instructed to prepare themselves for Haj.
