The secretary-general of the Council of Muslim Clerics in Italy, Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi of Rome, visited the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening.

Palazzi personally requested to visit the Gush Katif Museum as a gesture of solidarity with the former residents of Gush Katif and as a protest against the way in which terror organizations have taken over the sites of what were once Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip and the destructive results to achieving peace.

Sheikh Palazzi said that he remembered the Disengagement from Gush Katif very well, and that he felt that it was a totally unethical act. He also expressed his hope that the IDF and the police would never cause such an expulsion of Jews in Israel to happen again.

When the sheikh was asked if he was afraid to express his opinion, he replied that a man of faith does not need to abandon the path and the faith that he follows.
The sheikh was given a mezuzah as a souvenir of Gush Katif to protect and safeguard him in gratitudeof all he has done to help the Jewish people.
The director of the museum, Shlomo Wasserteil, thanked Sheikh Palazzi, and said that it was an honor for the Gush Katif Museum to host such a friend of Israel, who is not afraid to speak the truth loud and clear.

Wasserteil added that this is a very historic visit, and that various famous world leaders had also been to the museum that has become a place to learn some more of the history of Gush Katif, and identify with the Jewish people.

Photographs: Meir Alfasi