PA incites with story about faked damage to Quran at Israeli prison-Silent on Rockets
IMRA ^ / 6-8-05
Text: PA incites with story about faked damage to Quran at Israeli prison
Amidst Angry Reactions: "Majeddo" Prisoners on Hunger Strike Following Desecration of Holy Quran www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=5271 GAZA, June 8, 2005 (IPC + WAFA) -[Official PA website] - The prisoners of the Israeli "Majeddo" jail declared that they would go on an open hunger strike to protest the desecration of copies of the holy Quran by Israeli wardens on Tuesday, in addition to sub-human treatment they receive.
In a phone call with El Asra Media Center, the prisoners of Majeddo said that a group of Israeli wardens raided their cells and tore up some copies of the Quran, before stepping on it with their boots, which created tensions among the prisoners, who were outraged at this grave religious violation.
The prisoners warned that they will take several escalatory measures, and demanded international and human rights groups to intervene and prevent Israeli wardens from raiding and vandalizing their cells, calling on Arab and Muslim states to condemn this outrageous crime.
In a first reaction to the Israeli desecration, Arab Knesset member Abdul Malek Dahamsheh revealed that the Israeli wardens attempted to hide the desecrated copies of the Quran in order to cover their crime, but the prisoners refused to give it to them.
Dahamsheh called for an immediate investigation into this crime by the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Minister of Internal Security Gideon Ezra, and put those responsible for this crime on trial.
"What is happening at Israeli prisons and also at American detention camps proves the false democracy and freedom the USA and Israel claim to have. This indicates how much they hate Islam and its symbols," he added.
On its part, the Prisoners' Supporters Association also denounced the desecration of the Quran by Israeli wardens, considering it was part of the continuous Israeli violations of prisoners' human rights.
The association held the Majeddo jail administration fully responsible for any developments in the prison due to this "horrendous crime", calling on religious institutions to join them in condemning this action.
At the same context, the Fateh and Hamas movements today also condemned the Israeli measures against prisoners and desecration of the holy Quran, considering in press statements that it would lead the area back to the cycle of violence and further retard the peace process.
Furthermore, the Islamic Jihad movement said it was infuriated by the Israeli crime at Majeddo prison, calling for demonstrations in all Muslim countries to express their anger and condemnation, as with the reactions to the desecration of the Quran at the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.
The movement said this outrageous religious transgression came concurrent with the attempts of Jewish extremists to storm and also desecrate the holy Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, stressing that Israel would be held fully responsible for any consequences that might result from such aggressions.
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PLO Media Claims Israel 'Desecrating" Quran, Silent on Rockets
PLO MEDIA SAY ISRAEL WITH DESECRATES QURAN, BUT DO NOT CONDEMN ROCKET ATTACKS
By Michael Widlanski JERUSALEM--June 8, 2005-- Voice of Palestine radio offered great air time Wednesday morning to charges that Israeli jailers in the Megiddo Prison had deliberately desecrated three copies of the Quran, Islam's scripture, by throwing the book on the floor during a search of Palestinian prisoners' cells.
"Prisoners in Megiddo Prison began a three-day strike today to protest the desecration of the Holy Quran in the prison yesterday by Israeli security forces and police," declared VOP radio.
The new charges of Quran desecration come at a time that Israel has been charged with planning to desecrate Islamic holy sites, according to the Palestinian broadcast and print media directly controlled by Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The PA media and its mosque speakers often draw a direct parallel between "the American Occupation Army in Iraq" and "the Israeli Occupation Army," strongly suggesting that both are enemies of Islam, while the Palestinian media and text books make fun of the idea that there was ever a Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
"Members of the police began hurling the copies of the Quran in front of the eyes of the prisoners," Palestinian prisoners said, according to VOP radio.
The truthfulness of the story, Palestinian state radio said, was vouched for by Israeli Arab MK Muhammad Baraka.
[Note-Israeli Arab MKs and the Israeli Islamic Movement had a major role in the outbreak of the current Palestinian-Israeli War of 2000-2005 (in which several thousand people have died) as well as the Temple Mount riots in 1996 (in which about 50 people died) after charges that Israel had desecrated the grounds of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The theme of Quran desecration has been an important motif in the Palestinian media in the last three weeks, since Newsweek Magazine charged American prison authorities with having desecrated the Quran in an American-run prison in Cuba. About 20 people died in riots following the Newsweek charges, that were later withdrawn -MW]
Earlier, VOP radio opened its morning broadcasts with a re-run yesterday's news that PA Prime Minister Ahmad Qreia (nicknamed Abu 'Ala) had strongly condemned the Israeli policy of assassinations as carried out in Qabatya yesterday(VOP radio, 8AM-Jerusalem Time).
Prime Minister Qreia called for international intervention to stop Israeli war crimes, specifying intervention by the "Quartet"-the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
Once again VOP identified the dead men as Murawah Kmeil and Nasser Abdel-Rahim Zakarna, and it pronounced them martyrs.
"This is a serious and direct danger to the tahdiyya," VOP radio quoted Qreia, referring to the so-called Palestinian "cooling-off period" of not attacking Israelis.
In its fifth news item, VOP reported that the PA Interior Ministry had published a statement calling for all Palestinian groups to observe the tahdiyya for the sake of Palestinian national interests and national unity.
In its sixth item, VOP morning news hinted at the four rocket attacks on Sderot inside Israel yesterday when, citing "Israeli military sources," it mentioned that an Arab worker, identified as Salah Mraneh, was killed when another rocket landed on an Israeli "colony" in Gaza. VOP also told its listeners that a rocket killed another man-a Chinese worker. It did not tell its listeners that two Palestinian Arab workers had died in the attack, but it reported that the attack was carried out by Islamic Jihad. There was no condemnation or criticism of this action.
REPORT COMPILED BY MICHAEL WIDLANSKI ASSOCIATES. COMMISSIONED BY THE CENTER FOR NEAR EAST POLICY RESEARCH.
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