Israeli municipality is ‘hostile’ to us

The Jerusalem Municipality is “hostile” towards the Jerusalem Waqf Department and its property, the unit said in a complaint to the city’s mayor.

According to the Anadolu Agency, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported yesterday that the legal advisor of the department, Khalid Toma, sent a letter to the Israeli Jewish mayor of the municipality Nir Barakat outlining the “harassment” the Waqf has been subjected to at the hands of the municipality.

Toma wrote that the Israeli municipality had developed a “hostile” policy against the Islamic Waqf, citing a number of unilateral illegal measures taken by the municipality, warning the retention of such measures would lead to undesirable confrontations.

“As everyone knows, the Waqf Department is a branch of Jordan’s Endowment Ministry,” he wrote. “Along the previous years,” he continued, “the issues related to the department were run with much sensitivity, but I am obliged to say here that this has changed in the past few months.”

He mentioned the mayor’s decree eight months ago which called for confiscating part of the department’s property in East Jerusalem and adding it to the national park.

Toma also cited the relocation of a landfill to an area in Wadi Al-Juz owned by the department. He noted that these are “flagrant” violations against the property of the Islamic Waqf in the holy city.

According to Haaretz, the municipality responded to the issues mentioned in the letter saying it has acted legally.

Source: PNN