Watan-Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, said that the Zionist entity desires the land of Palestine to expand into it, including the Sinai, to achieve its “daydreams”.
He pointed out in an interview during his Ramadan program that the plans of the Zionist entity and its strategic goals have not achieved any success. They have not managed to eliminate Gaza, and the Palestinian people continue to stand steadfast.
Expressing his astonishment, Sheikh al-Tayeb said, “From a hellish army with all its armaments, striking day and night at a helpless people who possess nothing, yet the people, as he said, still exist and are forced to leave their land. Nevertheless, this people remain steadfast and standing on their land until now.”
Victory for the Palestinian cause
Sheikh al-Azhar al-Tayeb asked, “Is this natural?” He added, “Personally, I see that if we measure things by their outcomes, the Zionist entity will not triumph in this battle. Instead, the Palestinian cause will triumph, and the Palestinians will triumph because they stand on their land. They prefer to die to the last person among them rather than leave this land.”
Israel’s eye on Sinai
Al-Tayeb continued, stating that what happened was a defeat for all these weapons and institutions that stood behind the Zionist entity, seeking destruction, killing, and displacement.
He added, “I don’t think in history there has been a case where a hellish armed force faces a secluded group or people and strikes at them relentlessly for several months, day and night, pursuing them in their places. Even if they flee, they are pursued, and yet, they do not achieve one of their declared objectives.”
Al-Tayeb expressed his belief that the Israeli entity wants this land to leap from it into Sinai to achieve its grandiose dreams, as they claim.
شيخ الأزهر: الكيان الصــهيوني يُريد أرض #فلسطين ليقفر منها على #سيناء ليحقق “أحلام يقظة” pic.twitter.com/FwsMUQqtso
— الجزيرة مباشر (@ajmubasher) March 14, 2024
He mocked these dreams, citing the Quranic verse: “Indeed, the earth belongs to Allah; He causes to inherit it whom He wills of His servants.” This is a law, not daydreams or texts devoid of truth, he said.
The Israeli Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) strongly criticized the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt, alleging that he stands with extremist movements in the region, following several statements issued by him.
The Hebrew institute, in a report prepared by the Jewish orientalist Ofer Winter, the institute’s senior researcher and lecturer in the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University, titled “From Moderate Islam to Radical Islam… Al-Azhar Stands with Hamas”, claimed that the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, who has been heading the university since 2010, is the living spirit behind Al-Azhar’s hardline stance towards Israel. It noted that he often repeats a message indicating that “every occupation ends in extinction sooner or later”, implying that Israel’s existence is temporary and doomed to extinction.