The Deputy Director General of the Islamic Endowments in Jerusalem (affiliated with the Jordanian Ministry of Endowments) and the President of the Al-Aqsa Academy of Sciences and Heritage, Najeh Bakirat, confirmed that there are Israeli promises to return the dome and crescent of the minaret of the Citadel Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem, before the end of this month, which were removed. Recently under the pretext of carrying out restoration work.

Bakirat said in press statements, “The issue of the minaret has been followed up for six months, and we are monitoring what is happening inside the citadel, and we have filed an objection with the so-called Israeli Antiquities Authority and those in charge of its management.”

He continued: “We called for the need to return the dome and the crescent to its place, as it is a witness to the Arabism of Jerusalem, and it is considered one of the most beautiful minarets in the city, but since that time there has been great procrastination in the matter.”

He explained that “we received messages of reassurance after the major campaign we carried out to return the dome and crescent to the minaret, stating that the authorities will return the dome and crescent as they were without specifying a date.”

He added, “We asked them for a time limit on the matter, and they promised us that the dome and crescent would be as they were before, at the end of this month.”

Bakirat considered that “the procrastination in restoring the dome and crescent of the minaret of the Jerusalem Citadel was aimed at completing the restoration without it, to obliterate and falsify the features and identity of the minaret, and to Judaize it under the guise of restoration.”

It is noteworthy that the minaret of the historic Citadel Mosque is located in the southwestern corner of the Citadel of Jerusalem, which was established by the Mamluk Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun in 1310, and restored by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1532, then renewed in 1655, during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad IV.

After the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, the castle fell into the hands of the Israeli occupation, which in turn began extensive excavations that resulted in the destruction of part of it and a large number of its ancient Islamic antiquities.

In 1980, the occupation transformed the castle and its mosque into a Judaism museum called the “Castle of David Museum,” in which the history of Jerusalem is presented through the latest electronic means from an Israeli ideological point of view.

Last June, the so-called “Jerusalem History Museum” erected iron scaffolding around the minaret, claiming that it was carrying out restoration work on the minaret, which is the highest in the Old City.