Jerusalem mufti: Trump seeks to ‘liquidate Palestinian cause’

In a holiday sermon on Friday, the grand mufti of Jerusalem took aim at the US administration, leveling serious accusations in the run up to a regional visit by US envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt.

By: World Israel News Staff

The grand mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, took aim at US President Donald Trump in a fiery sermon on Friday, targeting the president’s peace plan in an address to around 90,000 worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Hussein used the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the month-long Ramadan festival, to declare that Trump’s undisclosed plan is “unfair and aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” reported Times of Israel.

While Trump has characterized the agreement as the “ultimate deal,” the Palestinians have repeatedly denounced the plan sight unseen.

Next week, White House special adviser Jared Kushner and US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt are slated to arrive in the region to discuss the plan’s rollout.

Its prospects look bleak, however, with the Palestinian Authority maintaining a moratorium on contact with Washington in an attempt to punish the US for moving its embassy in Israel to the capital, Jerusalem. Since that move’s announcement, the Palestinians have claimed the US is disqualified as a Mideast peace broker.

According to a recent Channel 10 report in Israel, notwithstanding the current absence of any planned sit-downs with Palestinian officials during the upcoming US visit, the American team is open to a meeting with the Palestinian side and is committed to impartiality in its dealings with Israelis and Palestinians.

“Our peace plan won’t be the [Netanyahu] plan. It will be fair, balanced, realistic and fitting,” the Channel 10 report quoted a US official as saying.