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Since the dawn of Islam,
in the seventh century, Palestine has occupied a paramount place
as a bastion of the
third monolithic faith. Consequently, countless of Muslim mosques
and
monuments have
disseminated in the country prior to 1948, when a Jewish state was
established and the
Zionist expelled 800,000 Palestinians from 80% of Palestine between
1948 and 1950.
But the new invaders of
the land wanted to erase all tracks of Arabs and Muslims in
preparation for the
establishment of a pure Jewish state.
Accordingly, a frenzy
campaign of rampage and destruction swept occupied Palestine, later
Israel, targeting
everything the Palestinians left behind them including their rich
religious
heritage. The Haganah
and Z’vai Leumi gangs embarked on the destruction of 418 Arab
villages including its
centuries-old mosques and churches. A number of Muslim mosques
and sites became
overnight Jewish synagogues. Others were simply turned to
restaurants,
coffees, and boutiques
and even to gambling centers.
The few lucky mosques
remained partially intact were not allowed to call to prayers using
megaphones.
Muslim places of worship
disappeared at large scale from historic Palestine and native
Palestinians were
compelled large sums of money to recover parts of their mosques or
relics from Jewish
landlords who took over it as spoils. For example, remaining native
Palestinians were able
to recover part of Dahmash mosque in the city of Lod only recently,
to find its interior
walls bearing, even after five decades, stains of blood as a result
of a
gross massacre against
Palestinians-- a stereotype of Zionist military campaign of terror
on the 1940s.
The mosque of Hasan Bey
in Jafa was recovered by Palestinians belatedly, following a
lengthy process of
litigations in the court rooms, but the mosque’s religious authority
were
ordered not call for
prayers through megaphones or by using the minaret.
The same story was with
Seedna Ali’s Mosque, in Jafa District, dating back to the early
years of Islam, was
opened recently to visitors.
Jafa’s Grand Mosque, has
been partially recovered by native Palestinians who perform
their prayers in a
bizarre situation since large part of the historic building was
utilized as
night clubs or coffees
by Israelis who demand a huge sum of money to give up their
illegally
owned shops.
Mosques in historic
Palestine have become under the Israeli state a witness to acts of
vandalism and
desecration practiced by a racist state and fanatic society of
immigrants
who harbor ill feeling
to native Palestinians.
Religious sites are
revered everywhere in the civilized world except in Israel, the
state of
fanaticism and
fundamentalists.
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