7 October 2000

In the name of Allah the most Gracious the most Merciful

The holy Aqsa Intifadha
Statement on the occupation’s defeat
At mosque of Yousef’s tombstone in Balata

“And in that day believers will rejoice. In Allah’s help to victory. He helpeth to victory whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Merciful.” (Rum)

All praises are to Allah and peace be upon our prophet Mohammed the leader of Mujahideen and on his family, companions and all those who marched along his path and Jihad till doomsday.

We herald to our Mujahid people today the good omens of defeating Zionist occupation at a dear spot in our precious homeland. The enemy withdrew in humiliation thanks to Allah in the first place then to the heroic resistance and Jihad cohesion expressed by our people ever since the outbreak of the Aqsa Intifadha and finally thanks to the blood of martyrs that poured over the country’s lands and holy Aqsa’s plaza. On this occasion we would like to affirm the following:

1-This tombstone was known a long time ago as an Islamic mosque that the Jews had no right in it at all whether historically or religiously. The Islamic Waqf documents prove that the tombstone was an Islamic Waqf and a mosque for Muslims and remained so for a long period until the herds of settlers came to plant a dagger in that brave city and convert the tombstone into a military camp through claiming Jewish right in that Islamic Waqf while it is well known that prophet Yousef, peace be upon him had lived, died and buried in Egypt.

2- We call on our people to end the destruction and burning of that Waqf and Islamic mosque. We call on them to preserve, clean and purge it from dirt of the settlers and deal with that event in a civilizational way coping with our Mujahid Palestinian people.

3- We ask the Islamic Awqaf department in Nablus to take the initiative and take control of the mosque, cleaning and purging it in addition to restoring things to normalcy and appoint a servant and an Imam for that mosque to supervise and serve it.

4- We request our people in Nablus district to share in purging that mosque through maintaining the five daily prayers in it, which would bear the real meaning of liberating that Islamic shrine. Let the immortal calls of Allahu Akbar rise high from above that mosque.

5- We urge the Awqaf department and all Muslims in that city to form a committee that would reconstruct that mosque so as to host the five daily prayers and to open a school for memorizing the holy Quran in it.

Finally we call on all Muslims in the city and district of Nablus to offer the next Friday’s noon prayers 13/10/2000 at the yards of that Islamic shrine “the tombstone of prophet Yousef.”

Allahu Akbar and victory for our Mujahid people
Allahu Akbar and all praises to Allah

The Islamic Resistance Movement
(Hamas – Palestine)
Saturday 7 October 2000