Israeli police threaten to tear down Sahwa Mosque in Negev area again

[ 08/11/2010 - 11:04 AM ]

NAZARETH, (PIC)-- The inspector-general of the Israeli police, who personally supervised the demolition of Al-Sahwa mosque in Rahat city of the Negev region, said the mosque will be razed again after the Palestinians there finish rebuilding it.

Bulldozers sent by the Israeli interior ministry under military protection flattened at dawn Sunday the mosque at the pretext of unlicensed construction, and consequently violent clashes broke out between the Palestinian residents of Al-Rahat city and the Israeli troops.

Dozens of Palestinians embarked immediately after the demolition on reconstructing the mosque, while the Israeli administration of lands threatened to knock down the mosque again.

For its part, the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands strongly denounced Israel for destroying this mosque, saying that Israel reached the highest level of its injustice and aggression.

This new Israeli violation against Palestinian mosques was also condemned by different Palestinian parties, where the Hamas change and reform parliamentary bloc said that this act is a translation of the concept of the Jewish state.

Hamas parliamentary bloc expressed its belief that Israel's crimes against mosques and Islamic holy sites would lead to its demise sooner or later and would make the Muslim Palestinian people more determined to defend their religion and more adherent to their national rights.

The association of Palestinian scholars considered that Israel violated all red lines and disregarded the feelings of more than one and a half billion Muslims all over the world.

It said that Israel flouted all values, norms and international laws that confirm the need for respecting religions and protecting other peoples' right to practice religious rituals and worship.

Masajedna Al-Da'awiya (our mosques for Da'wa) network, for its part, urged the Palestinians of Al-Rahat city to revolt against the Israeli occupation forces and continue to protect their mosque.

The network described Israel's demolition of Al-Sahwa mosque as part of an all-out religious war waged by Israel against Muslims and called on the Arab and Muslim nations to move in support of Islam and Palestinian mosques.

Palestinian minister of religious affairs Taleb Abu Sha'ar deplored the crime and warned of the dangers of the persistent Israeli violations against Islamic holy shrines.

Abu Sha'ar considered the escalating Israeli violations against mosques as a systematic scenario aimed at eliminating Islam and its foundations from Palestine, noting that during last month, the Jewish settlers launched attacks on 20 mosques in different areas of the occupied Palestinian territories.

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