Israel destroys mosques

In response to Dirk Vleugels' letter (The Jakarta Post, Dec. 12, 1999), David Jardine agreed to Vleugels' statement that Israel did not destroy mosques.

I think they forget the Zionists' track record of terrorism or lack information about the history of relations between Israel and Palestine.

They who have studied Zionism would know about the issue of "the tunnel" at Haram al-Sharif, a site known as "the noble sanctuary" in Jerusalem, revered by Muslims around the world as the place from which Prophet Muhammad was carried to the heaven (mi'raj). It covers some 40 acres, about one-fifth of the old Walled City of Jerusalem, and it is the site for both the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsha Mosque.

In building the tunnel, the Zionists began a wanton destruction of homes, schools and mosques in the Old City in 1967 when they seized military control of Jerusalem. They bulldozed the Arab Moghrabi quarter, named for an area in Arab North Africa, and evicted an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 Palestinians living in these quarters. Many Israelis with dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship assist in the construction of the tunnel by holding annually fund-raising dinners in the United States, collecting as much as US$2 million for the ambition known as the "Jerusalem Reclamation Project". The fund is sent as tax-free donations from six million U.S. Jews.

Grace Halsell, a writer who repeatedly visited Jerusalem, noted in the Washington Report On Middle East that the Zionists seem to show contempt for Jerusalem's historic and religious heritage of Islamic architecture and monuments, spanning 13 centuries, including 30 monuments from the Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, and Ayyubid periods; 79 from the Mamluk period, and 37 Ottoman buildings.

There are some facts about the destruction of mosques by Israel. On Aug. 21, 1969, a Zionist zealot set fire to the ancient Al-Aqsha Mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims in the world after Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca and Nabawi Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, because it was the first kiblah prior to Ka'bah in the complex of Al-Haram Mosque. Ka'bah, which was originally built by Prophet Adam, is a cube-shaped building to where Muslims all over the world direct their prayers five times a day. It also constitutes a primary focal point during the haj pilgrimage.

The Zionists planned to destroy the mosque and to build a Jewish temple on the site. This incident, however, aroused protests from Muslims in Indonesia at that time. They understandably linked it as a religious issue, whereas the struggle of Palestinian people to be free from Israeli colonialism is merely a political issue. Therefore, I agree with the opinion that Palestine is not a religious state. In fact, it tends to be a secular state, as was stated by PLO leader/ Palestinian President Yasser Arafat himself. In fact, there are many factions and religious groups in Palestine.

On April 11, 1982, Allan Harry Goodman, an American Zionist who had moved to Jerusalem, shot 11 Palestinians to death while they were praying in a mosque. A similar case occurred a decade later when American-born Israeli Jewish settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein murdered 29 Muslim men and boys while they were praying in a mosque in Hebron, the second largest town on the occupied West Bank. On Dec. 30, 1983, two grenades exploded in two mosques in the same town, and a suspected Jewish extremist group vowed to kill "many people" in two more attacks during the day.

DARUL AQSHA

Jakarta