An official in Egypt's Writers' Union said the union will terminate the membership of Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa because of a visit he paid to Jerusalem last Wednesday. Salah Alrawy, member of the union's Board of Directors said that the union has already prepared a decree to terminate Gomaa's membership, given that he broke the national consensus on boycotting Israel by all means, which includes a travel ban to Jerusalem while it's under Israeli occupation. Alrawy said that the union will hold an urgent meeting to take a final decision on the matter. Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa's visit to Jerusalem caused a stir last Thursday in his own country, where normalisation of ties with Israel remains a highly sensitive issue. The powerful Muslim Brotherhood called the trip a "catastrophe" that undermined Palestinian aspirations, and Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest authority, was to meet to discuss the issue. Gomaa, Egypt's highest religious authority, visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Wednesday for the first time, along with Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, King Abdullah II's cousin and adviser on religious affairs. Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in 1979, but its people are largely opposed to any normalisation of relations between the two nations pending the resolution of the Palestinian issue. The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said it "categorically rejects the visit to Jerusalem of Mufti Ali Gomaa whatever the reasons."
