the ministry called on relevant UN agencies, particularly the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), to take the necessary measures against this move, which it described as a "flagrant violation of international law and an assault on human values."
The Turkish position came in response to what the Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom revealed on Tuesday about the transfer of authority to administer the sanctuary from the Palestinian Hebron municipality to the (Jewish) settlement religious council in the Kiryat Arba settlement, in a move aimed at implementing structural changes to the site.
This is the first step of its kind since the Shamgar Committee's 1994 decisions, which recommended dividing the compound into 63% for Jews and 37% for Muslims, following a massacre committed by settler Baruch Goldstein that resulted in the martyrdom of 29 Palestinians while performing dawn prayers.
According to the newspaper, the Israeli Civil Administration has been seeking for years to implement fundamental changes to the Ibrahimi Mosque, including re-roofing it and constructing a roof for Jacob's Courtyard, which is used for Jewish prayer approximately 90% of the year.
The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in the Old City of Hebron, which is under Israeli occupation control. Approximately 400 settlers live there under the protection of approximately 1,500 Israeli soldiers.
This new Judaization move comes at a time when Israel, with American support, has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, leaving more than 198,000 Palestinians dead or wounded. This coincides with a bloody and devastating military assault on the occupied West Bank, which has resulted in nearly 1,000 deaths and more than 7,000 injuries to Palestinians.
