© AFPA Palestinian resident of the Old City of Hebron in the occupied West Bank prays on the rooftop of his house in front of the Ibrahimi Mosque on 24 April 2020.
In the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic, Palestinian residents of the Old City of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, found themselves fighting another battle that, for them, holds far higher stakes than the spread of Covid-19.
On 13 May, the Israeli military issued an expropriation order allowing construction to begin on an elevator project that would make a portion of the ancient Ibrahimi Mosque wheelchair accessible.
Aref Jaber, a local Palestinian activist and resident of the Old City, told Middle East Eye:
"On the surface, making holy sites accessible to people with disabilities seems like a fine idea. But in reality, this is just another dubious way for the Israeli government and settlers to steal more of our land and take it for themselves."The new elevator project, Jaber said, would swallow up more space of the already restricted Muslim side of the compound.
The Ibrahimi compound - known to Israelis as the Cave of the Patriarchs - was split into a mosque and synagogue following the 1994 massacre of dozens of Palestinian worshipers at the hands of Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein.
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