These remarks were made during the second extraordinary meeting of the parliamentary union of the organization of the Islamic conference (OIC) member states held Monday in Istanbul.
“If Jerusalem burns, Palestine will burn and if Palestine burns, the Middle East and the whole world will burn," Erdogan stressed, adding "the ugly schemes against Jerusalem will face a reaction not just from Muslims but also Christians and sympathetic Jews."
For his part, speaker of the Turkish parliament Mehmet Sahin stressed the importance of Jerusalem to Muslims and affirmed that Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian lands constitute a clear threat to peace and stability in the region.
Sahin called on the world’s parliaments to take strict measures to confront Israel’s violations which became a source of concern threatening the security and stability in the region.
In the same context, the Palestinian government in Gaza called on the Arab and Muslim states to shoulder their responsibilities towards the Aqsa Mosque, warning that their failure to take concrete steps to protect the Mosque tempts Israel to escalate its violations.In a press released issued yesterday, spokesman for the government Taher Al-Nunu stated that his government was keenly following up the escalating Judaization activities in Jerusalem, especially the settlers’ declared intention to desecrate the courtyards of the Aqsa Mosque on Monday under military protection.
Spokesman Nunu underlined that such practices would never change the fact that the Aqsa Mosque and all its premises are an Islamic holy shrine.
He added that allowing savage settlers to storm the Aqsa Mosque and the tomb of Prophet Joseph, east of Nablus, on the same day and the Israeli government’s denial of making pledges to halt settlement activities confirm that the Palestinian-Arab decision to resume peace talks was recklessly taken because it only serves Israel, burnish its image, and cover up its ongoing violations.
The spokesman warned that the Arabs’ delay in taking a firm decision against these violations tempts Israel to escalate them and implement its threats to divide the Aqsa Mosque.
The spokesman deplored the chief justice of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah Tayseer Al-Tamimi for inviting Sheikh Al-Azhar and father Shenouda in Egypt to visit Jerusalem, noting that making such visit as the holy city is still under occupation confers legitimacy on the Israeli occupation.
For its part, the international Al-Quds institution warned the Palestinians in Jerusalem and its Old City that the Israeli settlers intend to attack them and their property during a march on Tuesday.
The institution pointed out on Monday that the settlers have consistently embarked in recent years on attacking Palestinian citizens and their property during provocative marches they organize in Jerusalem, which prompted the Palestinians to defend themselves and clash with the assailants.
It also renewed its warning that the Israeli occupation is seeking this year to decide the fate of Jerusalem in its favor as a Jewish capital, especially with regard to the Aqsa Mosque, where Israel is waiting to seize a political opportunity to divide the Mosque and make this step reality.
Israeli settlers attack Palestinian mosques
Mel Frykberg, The Electronic Intifada, 11 May 2010
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| A Palestinian man reacts to the scene in Lubban al-Sharqiya's local mosque after settlers carried out an arson attack. (Rami Swidan/MaanImages) |
LUBBAN AL-SHARQIYA, occupied West Bank (IPS) - "There is immense anger as well as a feeling of vulnerability and fear when a place of sanctuary and holiness is subject to indiscriminate violence," says Issa Hussein.
"Despite living under a brutal military occupation and being subjected to regular attacks by Israeli settlers for decades, normally places of worship were spared," Hussein, a spokesman from this Palestinian village, near Nablus, in the northern West Bank, told IPS.
"People could forget about the economic hardship, the political oppression and their personal problems for a few hours a week as they retreated to pray in the mosque."
All this changed dramatically for the agricultural village of 3,000 residents a few weeks ago.
Israeli settlers from one of the three surrounding illegal settlements, which have been built on land belonging to Lubban al-Shariqiya and other Palestinian villages, carried out an arson attack on the local mosque.
The Israeli Civil Administration, which administers the occupied West Bank, originally denied that Israeli settlers had been involved, and instead blamed an electrical short-circuit.
However, Israeli fire-fighters who later came to investigate the gutted mosque said arson was the likely cause and ruled out the possibility of an electrical fire.
"The part of the mosque where the fire broke out was undergoing renovations and the electricity had been turned off," explained Hussein.
"Furthermore, some villagers heard cars drawing up at about 3am in the morning of the attack and saw settlers getting out of the vehicles and going into the mosque," said Hussein as he took IPS on a tour of the charred and gutted mosque.
Curtains from windows had been torn down to help the fire burn. Qurans, which are usually piled up at one end of the mosque, had been moved to the other end and placed in piles next to the bathroom.
On top of, and adjacent to, the pile of Qurans were shoes which had all been arranged into a Star of David sign, Judaism's chief emblem.
The vandalism of deliberately attacking a holy place in a deeply religious society, combined with the use of provocative and offensive symbolism, was not lost on the villagers.
"We would never store the Qurans near a toilet or put shoes anywhere near our holy books. Everybody is forced to take their shoes off at the door before they even enter the mosque," Hussein told IPS.
This attack is just the latest in a string of attacks on Palestinians and their property, including mosques, as Israeli settlers up their "price-tag policy."
The settlers have warned that for every illegal settlement outpost dismantled, restraining order issued or settler arrested in the West Bank, they will carry out retaliatory attacks against Palestinians, their homes, places of business, motor cars, agricultural fields, livestock and mosques.
Not a weekend goes by without Palestinians being assaulted, olive trees cut down or uprooted, fields set alight and cars stoned or burnt.
In December, a mosque in the nearby village of Yasuf was gutted and burnt. In April, Star of David and racist anti-Arab slogans were spray painted on a mosque in the village of Huwarra. Several cars were also set alight.
In turn settlers driving near Palestinian villages have also been subjected to stone-throwing and periodic attacks with Molotov cocktails by Palestinians, damaging vehicles and in some instances causing injuries.
However, Israeli military investigators believe the attacks on mosques are part of a deliberate policy by settlers and have uncovered information about future settler plans to attack mosques.
A number of settlers were arrested by Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet's Jewish department, but these arrests preceded more attacks on Palestinians. As of now it is not certain whether any charges will be pressed against those arrested.
The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, condemned the settler attacks.
"I condemn these attacks. It is vital that the Israeli government impose the rule of law and that those responsible for such crimes are brought to justice," said Serry.
The special coordinator's statement also expressed concern over "a number of attacks upon mosques in recent months, as well as violence against Palestinian property and individuals by extremist settlers."
"This is not the first time we have been subjected to settler attacks. They have burnt our crops on a regular basis. They also machine-gunned to death an elderly man and woman in 1990 near out village after Meir Kahane was assassinated in New York," Hussein told IPS.
Meir Kahane was the founder of the Jewish Defense League as well as the ultra right-wing and fascist Kach party which espouses the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
It was outlawed by the Israeli Knesset or parliament for being racist but it continues to attract supporters in Israel.
Members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) visited Lubban al-Sharqiya the same day that IPS was there and promised that the mosque would be rebuilt as soon as possible.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas, whose term expired last January and has been in power under contested emergency powers, has personally ordered its reconstruction.
All rights reserved, IPS -- Inter Press Service (2010). Total or partial publication, retransmission or sale forbidden.
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