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THE LAUGHABLE ARAB LEAGUE
[MER - While the laughable Arab League was meeting in Cairo, thanking Madeleine Albright (!) and refusing to even decide not to go to the U.S.-Israeli arranged "economic summit" in Doha in November, the Israelis have been madly arresting (and torturing as usual) Palestinians, escalating their Apartheid-style repressions, expanding settlements, and preparing to attack the Palestinian "autonomous" areas after the next "terrorism" occurs (as it inevitably will). The following article details what the Israelis did in Hebron on Sunday. It's a story reminiscent of the Russian "pogroms" against Jews a hundred years ago; and Jews everywhere should be both ashamed and outraged.]
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ISRAEL IS LAUNCHING WAR ON ISLAM
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[Palestine Times - 9/22/97:]
     Israeli occupation troops raided the Grand Mosque in Dura after midnight Sunday in the latest attack on Islamic holy places in the occupied territories.
     According to local Palestinian sources, scores of Israeli soldiers forced an entry into the mosque around shortly after midnight Sunday, presumably to carry out searches for "inciting materials."
     The Mosque Muezzin, Ja'afar Dasseh, said the soldiers behaved with obvious disrespect inside the mosque and stepped on copies of the Qura'an. He added that the commanding officer then produced a poorly-written closure order saying that the mosque, the largest in the Hebron area, be closed off for one month. Sheikh Salah al Natshe, Head of Hebron Wakf Department, strongly condemned the Israeli army transgression against Islamic holy places .
     "When somebody writes a graffiti at a Jewish grave in a remote part of Europe or North America, they make a big fuss about it; however when their murderous soldiers and settlers desecrate Muslim mosques and Christian churches, nobody says anything." Natshe pointed out that Israeli army attacks on Islamic holy places in the West Bank have assume phenomenal proportions of late. He said Israeli raids on mosques and their imams have become "almost a daily occurrence."      "The matter is simply a dirty war by Jews on Islam, the Qura'an and the holy prophet." Muhammed Ayyash, a clerk at the Bethlehem Wakf Department, concurred. He pointed out that the Israeli army has arrested as many as local imams at the villages of Tku, al Khader, Beit Fajjar and the Dheisheh refugee camp in the last two weeks. Ayyash admitted that the vindictive arrests were undermining the holding of prayers at the respective mosques.
     On Sunday, as many as 600 Israeli soldiers raided the village of Asira al Shamaliyya near Nablus. Assa'ad Sawalmeh, head of the local council, said the heavily-armed soldiers raided homes, beat up defenseless villagers and arrested scores of youth for "harboring Islamic tendencies."      Sawalmeh pointed out that the Israeli troops, commanded by Uzi Dayyan (Israeli army commander in the West Bank) forced as many as 600 local citizens into the local school where they subjected them to various forms of humiliation and occasional beating. In the meanwhile, the Israeli troops confined Palestinian Authority policemen to their local center, preventing them to leave the premise "until further notice." The Israeli operation at the village lasted for more than 12 hours, and as many as 25 local citizens were arrested.
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