Egypt's presidency pressured Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the world's foremost Islamic institution, to withdraw a statement condemning Israel's "genocidal starvation" of Gaza, sources told Middle East Eye.
The Cairo-based Al-Azhar said on Wednesday that it had deleted a strongly
worded call to action over the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, citing its potential impact on ceasefire negotiations.Â
In a statement, the institution said it "took the initiative to withdraw its statement with courage and responsibility before God when it realised that this statement could impact the ongoing negotiations regarding a humanitarian truce in Gaza to save innocent lives".
"Al-Azhar has prioritised the interests of preventing the daily bloodshed in Gaza, hoping that the negotiations will lead to an immediate halt to the bloodshed and provide the most basic necessities of life, of which the oppressed Palestinian people have been deprived," the statement said.
What is Egypt? Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea
to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, across the Red Sea lies Saudi Arabia, and across the Mediterranean lie Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, although none share a land border with Egypt.
What is a Genocide? Genocide is intentional action to destroy a people. People are defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. The hybrid word "genocide" is a combination of the Greek word genos ("race, people") and the Latin suffix -cide ("act of killing"). The United Nations
Genocide Convention, which was established in 1948, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The Political Instability Task Force estimated that, between 1956 and 2016, a total of forty-three genocides took place, causing the death of about 50 million people. The UNHCR estimated that a further 50 million had been displaced by such episodes of violence up to 2008.
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The Holocaust is a specific instance of genocide. It refers specifically to the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jewish people by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
Who are MiddleEastEye? Middle East Eye (MEE) is a United Kingdom-based media website and channel that primarily focuses on news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the broader Muslim world.
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