Ahlul Bayt News Agency, NAJAF, Iraq -- Dozens of protesters in the city of Najaf on Friday urged the Palestinian National Authority to stop peace negotiations with Israel, terming them as “futile”.
“Scores of Najaf residents staged a demonstration following the Friday prayers held at the al-Fatimiya Shiite mosque and raised placards and slogans demanding an end to the negotiations between PNA President and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” said protester Abdullatif al-Amidi, a student of Shiite theology, in statements to Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
“The protesters denounced the Israeli Zionist haughtiness, the usurping of Palestinian lands and construction of settlements,” he added.
Amidi noted that the current negotiations between the PNA and Israel are “futile and would lead to no results,” adding the protest march came “in response to calls by the Imam (Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini to celebrate the World Jerusalem Day in support of the Palestinian issue”.
Late Iranian top cleric Imam Khomeini had called in August 1979 on Muslims all over the world to celebrate the World Jerusalem Day on the last Friday in the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
The holy Shiite city of Najaf, said to be the home of the tomb of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb, the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and the highly-revered figure by Shiite Muslims, lies 160 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
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