[ 20/06/2011 - 07:29 PM ] NABLUS, (PIC)-- Tadhamon international human rights foundation has strongly condemned the removal of skeletons from the Muslim Al-Qishla cemetery near the Grand Mosque in Jaffa ahead of the construction of a tourist hotel in its place.
The rights group said the move, carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority and private companies, amounts to a violation of divine law as well as international law and conventions.
The treatment of the Muslim cemetery and changing of its features is a blatant violation of the cemetery’s sanctity and that of the deceased there, said Tadhamon lawyer and researcher Ahmed Toubasi, adding that is also insensitive to the sentiments of the Muslims. He said the IAA has no right to violate Muslim cemeteries and holy sites in Palestine territories.
“It was neither the first or last violation,” Toubasi said, citing previous violations on the Ma’manullah cemetery, Jerusalem’s largest Muslim cemetery, and a number of other graveyards that were evacuated and turned into parks and museums.
Just this month, Israel’s Jerusalem municipality approved a revised plan to erect the Tolerance Museum on parts of the Ma’manullah cemetery. Israeli authorities also decided to transform the Bab al-Rahma cemetery into a park and banned the burial of Muslims there. That cemetery was erected during the Muslim conquest of Palestine near Al-Aqsa Mosque, and is home to a number of graves of prominent Islamic figures.
Toubasi went on to say that the sites at hand are Islamic endowments and will never cease to be so simply because of the changing of its landmarks or the passage of time. He held the Israeli government responsible for the crimes it has committed against the Islamic graveyards and holy sites and called on the world community to intervene and pressure Israel into ceasing its violations of the Muslims holy sites in the Palestinian territories.
Israel Land Fund incites for Ras al-Amud mosque demolition
[ 20/06/2011 - 07:05 PM ]
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- A Jewish settler organization has been inciting for the demolition of a mosque in Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud district, with hopes of rallying support of high-profile Jews meeting for the Israeli Presidential Conference this year.The Israel Land Fund, which advocates and funds Jewish settler activity in the holy land, has claimed that locals carried out “illegal” restoration works on the Mohammad Al-Fatih mosque, which overlooks Al-Aqsa Mosque southeast of the Old City.
Earlier in January, the mosque was raided by Jewish settlers claiming the municipality had ordered to halt restoration works. They also called police, whose elements raided the mosque alleging to be looking for illegal Palestinian construction workers from the West Bank.
ILF director and founder Arieh King has accused Israel’s Jerusalem municipality of inaction on thwarting the mosque’s restoration aimed at expanding the mosque, which he says lies close to the burial site of former prime minister Menachem Begin, who founded the organization after the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948.
King has sights set on garnering support from top Jewish leaders who will gather in Jerusalem for the Israeli Presidential Conference, which will be held this year on June 21-23.
The ILF head said one of the speakers would bring the topic up at the conference. He said he works under the premise that matters that may not bother Israeli officials may bother Jews abroad, according to Israeli media outlets.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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