Israel takes control of Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque: What this means

Israel’s Smotrich claims 1997 Hebron Agreement is effectively cancelled

Israel has seized planning and construction powers covering the Ibrahimi Mosque , on the site of a Jewish and Muslim shrine in the occupied West Bank, from Palestinian authorities, scrapping parts of an agreement in place since the 1990s, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday.

In a speech announcing the move, Smotrich said he had “abolished” the parts of the 1997 Hebron Agreement that gave the Palestinian municipal council of Hebron control of planning, zoning and construction in the H2 zone of the West Bank city .

Observers have described the move as “dangerous”. “Hebron for years has been the tensest city in the West Bank,” Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, told Al Jazeera. “Any moves to change the existing arrangements in Hebron in favour of intensifying the Israeli occupation are extremely dangerous.”

All three Abrahamic faiths believe this is where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives are buried inside the Old City of Hebron.

Jews and Christians call it the Tomb – or Cave – of the Patriarchs.

Muslims, like Christians, also revere Abraham. They built the Ibrahimi mosque, also known as the Sanctuary of Abraham, there in the 14th century, expanding on the first-century BC outer walls built by the Roman King Herod.

Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque have at times been a flashpoint for violence. In 1994, an American-Israeli Jewish settler killed 29 Muslims praying at the shrine and wounded 125 others.