There can be no politicization of Haj pilgrimage: Saudi

Arab News

August 8, 2017

Jeddah, Aug 8: Saudi Arabia rejects all attempts to politicize and internationalize the Hajj, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, chairman of the Central Hajj Committee, said on Monday.

Prince Khaled, adviser to King Salman and governor of Makkah Region, was speaking at the inauguration of the “Hajj is Worship and Civilized Behavior” campaign. “Hajj is a message of peace,” he said.

On the campaign by Qatar to reduce the role of the Kingdom in providing services to pilgrims, Prince Khaled said: “The answer is in the title of this campaign ... There can be no politicization of pilgrimage.”

Prince Khaled said Saudi Arabia’s leadership, government and people were keen to provide everything to serve the Hajj pilgrims, and to enable them to perform their pilgrimage with ease.

He urged all pilgrims to be infused with Islamic ethics and to be a model of Muslim civilization.

“The campaign since its inception has achieved great achievements and successes, including the reduction of the rate of offenders to 5 percent during the pilgrimage season compared to 9 percent in the previous year,” he said.

“There is a lot of doubting, but the lesson is in the results and the achievement. The regulations will be applied firmly and with Islamic ethics.”

Prince Khaled revealed that the Makkah Region Development Authority had implemented projects worth SR300 million this year to improve Hajj services and develop them in the current season. The authority and the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah would implement a large project in the holy sites to be announced in due course, he said. “All sectors have their achievements in the pilgrimage season.”

The campaign, launched by the emirate of Makkah in 2008, continues to spread the Hajj message of peace. It will work to consolidate the ultimate goal of bringing millions together for performing a pillar of Islam based on peace and spirituality.

The objectives of the campaign are to educate pilgrims to abide by public laws and regulations, thus contributing significantly to a safe and peaceful pilgrimage.

The campaign targets citizens, residents, Tawafa organizations, Hajj companies, the transport sector and the media.

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Israel orders 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate eastern Rafah ahead of ground invasion

News Network

May 6,2024

The Israeli regime is forcibly evacuating Palestinians from the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip amid the prospect of its widely-discouraged ground invasion.

“The estimate is around 100,000 people,” an Israeli military spokesman told journalists on Monday when asked how many people were being evacuated.

International organizations, including the United Nations, have repeatedly warned the regime against invading the city, citing its hosting around 1.5 million Palestinian refugees.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a ground assault on Rafah would “put the final nail in the coffin” for humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also said, “Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death,” with an official saying “It could be a slaughter of civilians.”

Multiple aid agencies, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, have likewise warned against a Rafah offensive.

The NRC said such an invasion “would profoundly exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of need and the humanitarian emergency for millions of civilians with nowhere left to go.”

The official alleged Hamas had killed three Israeli forces on Sunday, attacking them from Rafah.

The evacuation order came a sat least 22 people lost their lives in the regime’s airstrikes killed in Rafah earlier on Monday.

Rafah’s evacuation “is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas,” the Israeli spokesman added, referring to the Palestinian resistance movement that has been defending Gaza in the face of the war.

The Palestinians have fled there from the ravages of a war that the regime began waging against Gaza on October 7, following a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

At least 34,683 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 78,018 others injured so far during the brutal military onslaught.

On Friday, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on carrying out a ground invasion of Rafah was a key stumbling block in negotiations aimed at a truce agreement.

The Israeli premier has said the regime would go ahead with invading the city “with or without” a truce.

Hamas has, however, asserted that the regime has failed to defeat the resistance during the war.

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