Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt. Photo:wiki commons.

Fox News – Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday denounced a rare visit to Jerusalem by the nation’s top Islamic theologian that broke with decades of opposition to traveling to areas under Israeli control.

Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa replied that his two-hour visit on Wednesday was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians’ claim to Israeli-held east Jerusalem.

The short trip countered a long-standing unofficial view that there should be no contacts with Israel until an Arab-Israeli peace settlement is reached. Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, but most Egyptians view the Jewish state as their top enemy.