JEDDAH — Palestinian Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habash is in the Kingdom for discussions with Saudi authorities on arrangements for pilgrims from his country for the upcoming Haj. He has already held talks with the Saudi minister of pilgrimage. “We have already met with Minister Bandar Hajjar to discuss preparations for the new Haj season. They also reviewed arrangements during last Haj season to avoid a recurrence of any negative factors next season,” said Al-Habash. He revealed that there was a detailed discussion on the new services offered by the Kingdom on all levels, including construction work, roads, bridges and expansion of the Grand Mosque. “We cannot forget Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah's support to families of the Palestinian martyrs, the injured and Palestinian detainees to provide an annual honor and host them for Haj. We hope that this Haj season will also be a success and we are working to provide the best services at the lowest possible cost. We, in Palestine, are always trying to improve the level of our services and we work in coordination with all concerned departments in the Kingdom,” said Al-Habash. He said some Palestinian pilgrims would be disappointed due to the 20 percent reduction in this year's Haj quota but said it was expected in light of the expansion work taking place in the holy mosque. The Kingdom has reduced the quotas of all countries due to ongoing construction in Makkah. He also spoke of the difficult circumstances Palestinians face while working and living under Israeli occupation and siege, as well as the difficulties they face in organizing pilgrims' travel to the Kingdom, as some pilgrims arrive by air from Egypt while others come through Jordan. “The suffering of the pilgrims due to distance and procedures leads us to express our hope for the speedy completion of procedures on border crossings. We are also hopeful that due to the Palestinians' difficult circumstances, they will be given an exception this year to come in full numbers with no deduction in the number of pilgrims.” Saudi Gazette asked Al-Habash about the violations committed by occupation forces in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and he said Israel was carrying out a campaign to speed up the Judaization of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque. “Israelis are racing against time to fully convert Jerusalem into a Jewish city, which is extremely dangerous and is a wake-up call for Arabs. Are Arabs waiting to wake up one day to find Al-Aqsa Mosque very far from them? Or are they waiting for the occupation's conscience to wake up? There are 40,000 residents who have left Jerusalem because of the economic conditions and the unemployment, school dropouts and heavy spread of drug usage among young people. Currently about 300,000 Palestinians live in Jerusalem under difficult and suffocating circumstances, which coincides with an increase in the number of Israeli settlements,” he said. Asked about Arab League support, Al-Habash said only a few million dollars come in the form of humanitarian aid. However, Jerusalem needs more political and economic support. “In many international summits, we presented integrated work programs to support Jerusalem, which stands on the brink of bankruptcy. Here, I can say that Saudi Arabia is the only country that paid all its obligations to the Arab League and thus toward Palestine.”
