Grand Mufti issues decree banning Palestinians from supporting peace plan

The grand mufti of the Palestinian Authority has decreed that any Palestinian who cooperates with US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Middle East is “betraying Allah,” and that they “deserve to be cursed by Allah, his angels and all people.”

The ruling was reported on February 12 in al-Hayat al-Jadida, the Palestinian Authority’s official daily paper, under the headline “The grand mufti forbids cooperating with the Deal of the Century and those who are promoting it,” according to the NGO Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which translates official PA media into English.

According to the paper, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories, Muhammad Hussein, published a statement on February 11 forbidding Palestinians from supporting Trump’s plan, known as the Deal of the Century, since according to him, its goal is to eliminate the Palestinian cause permanently.

Anyone who cooperates with the deal is deemed by the ruling to be betraying Allah, His Messenger [Muhammad], the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem and Palestine, the paper reported.

Hussein ruled that the deal steals Jerusalem from the Palestinians, its alleged rightful owners, denies Muslims access to al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, and it delegitimizes the rights of refugees to reparations as a people who were forced from their lands.

He further stated that the deal was designed to deny the Palestinian people the right to live with dignity; strengthens Israel, who he called the “thieving oppressor”; and unfairly grants Israel the majority of the land, “which confirms that those who are planning this unjust aggressiveness, or willingly supporting or being silent about it, deserve to be cursed by Allah, his angels and all people,” the paper wrote.

In addition to his role as grand mufti, Hussein is a preacher at al-Aqsa, sits as chairman of the Palestinian Supreme Fatwa Council, and is deputy and acting secretary-general of the PLO Popular National Conference of Jerusalem, according to PMW.

The ruling by Hussein echoes that of Mahmoud al-Habbash, the PA’s Supreme Sharia Judge and chairman of the Supreme Council for Sharia Justice, who decreed, prior to the unveiling of the plan, that anyone accepting the terms of the deal, “will pay the price of treason.”

“We will not accept the deal of shame, we will not accept the Trump deal, we will not accept the so-called Deal of the Century, or slap of the century‎, or shame of the century, or filth of the century,” he said on official PA TV on January 24. The Arabs and Muslims will not accept it… Whoever accepts it – he will pay a heavy price for it.  Yes, he will pay the price for accepting it. He will pay the price of treason. [Accepting] this deal is the way to treason.”

Under Trump’s plan, Israeli sovereignty would be applied to the Jordan Valley and the land where all Israeli towns and cities in the West Bank are located, roughly 30% of the total area. In return, a Palestinian state would be formed from the remaining 70% of the West Bank, as well as Gaza and part of what is currently Israeli land in the Negev, with the state’s capital in east Jerusalem beyond the security wall. The land would be approximately equal in size to the current West Bank and Gaza arrangement.

However, as a precondition to forming a state, the Palestinians would have to extensively reform their laws and institutions, including all incitement to terror.

Fatah has told Palestinians to defend Palestine with their “blood and soul” to ensure that the deal does not go ahead.