Israelis demolish Negev mosque as ethnic cleansing continues
Friday, 23 May 2014 11:56
File photo of a Palestinian mosque razed by Israel
Israeli bulldozers guarded by a large force of police started to demolish the mosque in Wadi Al-Niam in the Negev on Thursday
amid residents' fears that authorities could also demolish homes in the
village. A demolition order had been nailed to the mosque wall a few
days earlier.
The
Negev Foundation for Land and Man denounced the demolition, describing
the Israeli act as a blatant assault on the sanctity of the mosque and
on Arab rights to live in the Negev. It also noted that the demolition
violates the right to freedom of worship as well as international laws
and conventions.
The
foundation also condemned the police attacks on the residents of Wadi
Al-Niam, the demolition of their homes, the confiscation of their
property and the destruction of their crops. It stressed that the
indigenous people of the Negev Desert are determined to stay in their
homes in the face of Israeli scheming and force. It appealed to Arabs in
Israel and the Arabs of the Negev in particular to stand by the people
of Wadi Al-Niam.
The
Islamic movement in the Negev said that the demolition of the Wadi
Al-Niam mosque is a criminal act by the Israelis. It is, the movement
said in a statement, part of the wider ethnic cleansing of the area by
which Israel wants to displace 60,000 Palestinian Arabs from their
traditional home in the desert so that Jewish settlers and the Israeli
army can move in.
"The
people in the Negev have the right to live on their own land," said the
Islamic movement. "They have the right to build on it and live on it
and worship on it." The demolitions, the statement added, will only
increase the people's resolve to stay put on their land.
The
movement called on all human rights organisations and institutions in
the Negev to stand side by side with the people of Wadi Al Niam, defend
their legitimate rights and confront Israel's ethnic cleansing.
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