[News] Open Wound on Nakba Day

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Palestine's Shrines
Open Wound On Nakba Day

By Yasser El-Banna, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, May 15 (IslamOnline.net) - As the Palestinians mark Saturday, 
May 15, with heavy hearts the usurping of their homeland by the Zionists, 
better known as the "Nakba Day", they look with anguish at their desecrated 
holy shrines, just to twist the knife a little.

With systematic Israeli obliteration of historic and holy sites, the 
Palestinians stand helpless to see their mosques and ancient mausoleums 
morphed into brothels, nightclubs and stables.

Statistics and reports by Al-Aqsa Society for the Reconstruction of Islamic 
Shrines (ASRIS) indicate that Israeli occupation troops have so far 
demolished up to 1200 mosques and dug up many tombs.

Ein Al-Zaitoun mosque, north of Palestine, was the latest victim of the 
Israeli crimes.

On May 4, an Israeli farmer annexed the two-storey, 340-square-meter 
worshiping place and turned it into a stable for his cows.

His friends destroyed part of the pulpit and detached the mosque’s 
date-stone, which bore its ancient inscriptions, and tarnished its inside 
and outside walls written in Hebrew.

On day later, unknown people exhumed the bones buried in Raslan mausoleum, 
north of Tiberius.

Having been given the green light from their government, Israeli bulldozers 
further piled up sand and building material inside the Islamic Tira 
Al-Karmal tomb in the city of Tira, now under the Israeli yoke.

It is believed that the Israelis intend to carve out a road running through 
the historic tomb.

The Israeli government also plans to build a museum on the tomb of Ma’man 
Allah in western occupied Jerusalem.

It said last month that the building would be inaugurated in the presence 
of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The tomb is the biggest and oldest in the occupied city, stretching on 
200,000 square kilometers.

Many companions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) are buried in the tomb.

Add to that, Al-Farouqi mosque, in Bisan, was set ablaze, the tombs of 
Igzam were bulldozed to build apartment blocks instead and a pornographic 
movie was shot in the esplanade of Al-Ahmar mosque in the city of Safad.

History Falsified

Israel has also obliterated any Arab or Islamic character of the 
Palestinian villages to falsify history and distort facts.

The village of Om Al-Zinat in Haifa is a case in point. Its sole mosque was 
reduced to rubble.

Israelis also turned a grand mosque in Bisan to a museum, and only the 
minaret was left from Al-Suwika’s mosque, which faded away into the new 
streets and buildings of the Jewish city of Safad.

The mosque was one of many Palestinian shrines, which included seven tombs 
and 14 mausoleums. Now, the area was obscured by new Israeli sprawling 
cement blocks.

Hittin Mosque, which stands witness to the battle of Hittin led by Arab 
leader Saladin in 1187, is still stifled with iron chains.

A mosque in Al-Khalil (Hebron) was also completely destroyed and another 
was shut down before Palestinian worshippers.

Last month, the ASRIS warned in a report that an Israeli plan called 
"Tamam-6" was aimed at obliterating the Islamic and Arab character of 
Palestinian villages occupied in 1948 by marking out mosques, tombs and 
historical sites.

The scheme will see new parks, bridges, roads and sewerage system running 
deep into many Islamic and Arab historical sites.

On April 18, 1948 , Palestinian Tiberius was captured by Menachem Begin's 
Irgun group, putting its 5,500 Palestinian residents in flight. On April 
22, Haifa fell to the Jewish mobs and 70,000 Palestinians fled.

Irgun began bombarding civilian sectors of the Palestinian city of Jaffa - 
the largest city in Palestine at that time - on April 25, terrifying the 
750,000 inhabitants into panicky flight.

On May 14, the day before the creation of Israel on the rubble of Palestine 
and bodies of the Palestinians, Jaffa completely surrendered to the much 
better-equipped Jewish gangs and only about 4,500 of its population remained.

Days before the 12,000 Palestinians of Safed were routed and Beisan, with 
6,000 Palestinians, fell.

In 1967, approximately 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes in the West 
Bank and the Gaza Strip when Israel launched a war against Jordan , Syria 
and Egypt, capturing and occupying the West Bank , including Al-Quds and 
the Gaza Strip (the Occupied Palestinian Territories).





Mike Odetalla..."A seed in the fruit of Palestine"

May is Al-Nakba Awareness Month

May 15, 1948 to May 15, 2004, 56th Anniversary of Al Nakba

<http://www.alnakba.org/>http://www.alnakba.org/

http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/

<http://www.palestineremembered.com>http://www.palestineremembered.com

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