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Destruction of Mosque in Southern Israel- the war on terrorism goes onFriday 07 Feb 2003
author: Shabtai Gold (inhalin@yahoo.com)
summary
The Israeli Ministry of Interior destroyed a mosque in the Negev this week- part of the war on terror?
We are used to hearing about house demolitions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The usual scenario is this: Israel claims some person was involved in some terror act- sometimes true, sometimes not- and then decides to punish his whole family and their neighbors by destroying his home- even if "his" home is his parents home and even if the neighbors' homes get damaged in the process.
Usual every day stuff; there is even an Israeli committee, an NGO, against house demolition, which does some very nice work. Ho hum.... If this sounds run of the mill and boring I apologize. I write this introduction to explain the true nature of the Israeli government's policy.
This week, the Bedouins in the Negev- a desert region in southern Israel- who are citizens of Israel had one their mosque destroyed by the Israeli Minister of the Interior. The reason: illegally built. Cost to locals: 100,000 shekels (about $22,000) that they paid out of their own pockets. The government refuses to grant these people building permits since they are living in "unrecognized villages". They have been living in these parts many years prior to the arrival of the first Zionists, only bout 120 years ago. Even so, Israel refuses to "recognize" their villages, thus rendering their very existence in their homes "illegal" and any building illegal.
Israel does this since they are not Jewish. Jews have never had a problem building. Just look at all the Jewish outposts in the West Bank to understand that Israel doesn't care about illegal building by Jews.
Today, Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, the Bedouins of ElMaliach- the Bedouin name of the town in which the mosque was built- had no mosque to pray in and staged a protest of prayer next to the ruins of their investment- a peaceful, quite protest; the only noise heard was that of the the prayers and religious sermons given. Some 350 people showed up to pray on rugs placed next to the rubble, which the Ministry of Interior just left there- one more safety hazard these people will have to deal with. To date, these people have no running water, high voltage electricity wires built directly over their homes, and built on purpose that way by the Israeli government. They do not have electricity out there, except for gas-powered generators they purchase for themselves; the consequences are many, the main one being the inability to refrigerate medicines.
Surrounding the various Bedouin towns in the Negev have sprung up many Jewish towns and cities and not one had a problem receiving building permits. They all have clean drinking water and proper medical clinics with all the needed drugs and equipment. Their children don't have to worry about quicksand in the middle of the playground.
If the Israelis are simply waging a war against terrorism these days, and not a war against Arabs, why is it that the Bedouins of the Negev are made to suffer so much by the Israeli government?
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