On Saturday, December 27, His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan Ibn Talal, President of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS), extended his congratulations to heads and representatives of churches in the Kingdom and to members of the Christian communities on the occasion of Christmas during a visit to the Presentation of the Lord Cathedral. The visit was attended by a number of former ministers and Muslim and Christian national figures.
Prince El Hassan began his remarks by offering congratulations and best wishes on Christmas, at a difficult time in which the suffering of the people of Gaza Hashem is never absent from conscience, and Jerusalem remains ever present in the heart and mind.
He affirmed his deep belief in humanity, stressing that faith, in its essence, centers on human solidarity and mutual support, and that freedom of belief and the associated right to full citizenship based on complete equality in rights and duties constitute a cornerstone in building modern societies. These rights, he said, are guaranteed by explicit constitutional principles and definitive religious texts.
Prince El Hassan stressed the importance of the Hashemite custodianship over the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, underscoring that the historical bond between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Holy City forms an integral part of the national historical legacy.
He said Jordan submitted a file in 1981 to the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO to register the Old City of Jerusalem on the World Heritage List and followed this in 1982 with a request to place it on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
He said that in 2004 Jordan, within the Arab group, confronted an attempt by the Israeli authorities to remove the Old City of Jerusalem from the list and succeeded in maintaining its registration as World Heritage in Danger.
Read more: https://en.abouna.org/content/prince-el-hassan-extends-christmas-greetings-reaffirms-hashemite-custodianship-over
By petra.gov.jo & abouna.org
