[News] 86 Israeli Attacks on Islamic and Christian Holy Sites in 2014

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  86 Israeli Attacks on Islamic and Christian Holy Sites in 2014

author Friday January 02, 2015 01:45author by IMEMC
http://www.imemc.org/article/70172

    Al Aqsa Association for Waqf and Heritage has reported that Israelis
    carried out some 86 assaults and violations of Islamic and Christian
    Palestinian holy sites in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in 2014.

In a report published Wednesday, the association stated that about 30 
cases of assault on mosques, 21 cases of assault on graveyards, six 
cases of attacks on Christian holy sites, and other sporadic attacks, 
including preventing the call for prayer in Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs> hundreds of times 
-- amounting to dozens a month -- were documented.

To the previous list, the association added the complete destruction of 
73 mosques, the partial vandalism of 197 mosques, and damage of one 
church during this past summer's war on Gaza.

Al-Aqsa Association recorded five cases of burning mosques or parts of 
them, including the burning of Ali bin Abi Talib mosque in the village 
of Deir Estia, in Salfit, spraying of racist slogans on a shrine in 
Anata town near Jerusalem, Abu Bakr mosqe in Umm al-Fahm, and Abu Bakr 
mosque in the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus, and the Great Western 
mosque al-Mughayir village in Ramallah.

Other incidents were recorded such as the attacks on two mosques and 
Islamic shrines with racist writings and Talmudic words. The report also 
documented the demolishing of five mosques in Nablus, Jerusalem and Naqab.

Meanwhile, six cases of assault on Christian holy sites were also 
recorded by the association. In April, "price tag" 
<http://www.imemc.org/newswire?search_text=price+tag&button=Search+%3E%3E> 
groups vandalized a monastery in Rafat, to the west of Jerusalem, while 
an extremist Israeli threatened a priest in Nazareth. Another incident 
happened in the same month, when price tag groups sprayed racist 
comments near the Roman church in Jerusalem.

In May, Israeli extremists sprayed offensive comments about Jesus Christ 
near a church in Beersheba. Meanwhile, other Israelis wrote offensive 
comments about the prophet Mohammad and Jesus, an incident which 
coincided with the Holy See’s visit to Palestine.

The report also recorded 18 attacks against mosques in Hebron and 
Bethlehem, while other attacks which were documented targeted Muslim’s 
graveyards, such as smashing gravestones, stealing monuments, spraying 
racist comments, confiscating yards and selling the land to build 
commercial malls.

According to the report, in 2014, Israeli forces and settler efforts 
increased to take control over Waqf land to turn it into Jewish shrines; 
among these attempts were putting up fake gravestones and raiding the sites.

As for the Ibrahimi Mosque, which is targeted on daily basis, the call 
for prayer was prevented more than 250 times under the pretext that it 
annoys Israeli settlers. The violations include preventing worshipers 
from entering the mosque to pray.

In the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs said the 
Israeli army destroyed 73 mosques completely, 197 partially, and one 
church partially. It added that six Zakat offices were completely 
damaged, a waqf school was bombarded and 11 graveyards were destroyed.
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20150102/659b192b/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: date.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 114 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20150102/659b192b/attachment.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: person.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 72 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20150102/659b192b/attachment-0001.gif>