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</font><div align="center"><font face="verdana" size=4 color="#800000"><b>Palestine's
Shrines…Open Wound On Nakba Day<br><br>
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<font face="verdana" size=2><i>By Yasser El-Banna, IOL
Correspondent<br><br>
</i>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Ein Al-Zaitoun mosque, north of Palestine, was the latest victim of the
Israeli crimes.<br><br>
On May 4, an Israeli farmer annexed the two-storey, 340-square-meter
worshiping place and turned it into a stable for his cows.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
On day later, unknown people exhumed the bones buried in Raslan
mausoleum, north of Tiberius.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
It is believed that the Israelis intend to carve out a road running
through the historic tomb.<br><br>
The Israeli government also plans to build a museum on the tomb of Ma’man
Allah in western occupied Jerusalem.<br><br>
It said last month that the building would be inaugurated in the presence
of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.<br><br>
The tomb is the biggest and oldest in the occupied city, stretching on
200,000 square kilometers.<br><br>
Many companions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) are buried in the
tomb.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>History Falsified<br><br>
</b>Israel has also obliterated any Arab or Islamic character of the
Palestinian villages to falsify history and distort facts.<br><br>
The village of Om Al-Zinat in Haifa is a case in point. Its sole mosque
was reduced to rubble.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Hittin Mosque, which stands witness to the battle of Hittin led by Arab
leader Saladin in 1187, is still stifled with iron chains.<br><br>
A mosque in Al-Khalil (Hebron) was also completely destroyed and another
was shut down before Palestinian worshippers.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
The scheme will see new parks, bridges, roads and sewerage system running
deep into many Islamic and Arab historical sites.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Days before the 12,000 Palestinians of Safed were routed and Beisan, with
6,000 Palestinians, fell.<br><br>
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). <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br><br>
<br><br>
Mike Odetalla</font>..."A seed in the fruit of
Palestine"<br><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><b>May is Al-Nakba Awareness
Month<br><br>
May 15, 1948 to May 15, 2004, 56th Anniversary of Al Nakba<br><br>
</b></font><font face="arial" size=2><a href="http://www.alnakba.org/">http://www.alnakba.org/</a><br><br>
<a href="http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/<br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.palestineremembered.com">http://www.palestineremembered.com</a><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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