CAIRO- Egypt's Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayyeb on Thursday rejected the idea of travelling to the Israeli-occupied Muslim holy city of Jerusalem through obtaining an Israeli visa, after a declaration by Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments Hamdi Zaqzouq that he planned to visit Jerusalem. "Visiting Jerusalem on an Israeli visa is totally rejected, as this will support the Israeli occupation of the Muslim holy city and will imply an admission of Israeli occupation," el-Tayyeb said in a statement on Thursday. Minister of Religious Endowments Zaqzouq yesterday defied his critics by announcing plans to visit the Muslims' third holy city, and that he does not care about obtaining Israeli permission. "My visit will present the biggest support to the cause of the Palestinians," Zaqzouq said, giving the example of the Prophet Mohamed, who took permission from the disbelievers in order to visit Mecca, the Muslims' holiest site. El-Tayyeb said on Wednesday that resolving the rift between the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah was an Islamic duty, and branded whoever blocked such attempts as a "sinner". "Palestinian reconciliation is a religious obligation and a sacred duty. Whoever blocks or delays it has sinned," he said in a statement on Thursday. Tayyeb, who became Egypt's leading cleric in March after the death of his predecessor at Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prominent seat of learning, also called on Palestinians, "regardless of their affiliations, to rise above their differences". Division between Zaqzouq and el- Tayyeb was nothing new as the former, late Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi had also rejected the idea of visiting Jerusalem while the city is under Israeli occupation. Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Egyptian Orthodox Church, has urged Copts in Egypt not to visit Jerusalem until the city is liberated from the Israelis. Zaqzouq, however, says by visiting Jerusalem he was not calling for normalising relations with Israel. Egypt was the first Arab nation to have a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, followed by Jordan.
