International AffairsNews updates

Israeli police raze mosque amid protests From Shira Medding, CNN

(CNN) — Israeli police officers razed a mosque they said was built illegally in the southern city of Rahat as residents hurled rocks at them.

Hundreds of police officers accompanied by land authority officials arrived in the city on Saturday night. They had bulldozers and trucks, and said they were carrying out a court order, according to Mayor Faiz Abu-Sahaban.

The mayor said residents built the mosque before they had permits.

However, he said, a "mosque is not something you can demolish, instead you can grant permits."

The mayor said resolving the issue through dialogue was better than razing the mosque.

"Demolitions bring only trouble," he said.
Residents protested the demolition and threw stones at the police, who used rubber bullets to disperse them, he said.
"This will only encourage the extremists," the mayor said. "We want to live in peace together. We don't want trouble, the aim is to prevent more destruction."

Residents started rebuilding the mosque Sunday morning, he said, and declared a strike in protest of the demolition.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the mosque was razed early Sunday to honor a July court ruling.

Rosenfeld said five residents were arrested.
Rahat is home to more than 50,000 Bedouins and is just north of the southern city of Beer Sheva.

The Bedouins are an Arab Muslim minority and are citizens of Israel.They have lived in the Negev desert for centuries leading a Nomadic lifestyle.

Israel started to try and settle them in permanent towns a few decades ago. However half of them still live in unrecognized villages with no basic rights or municipal services.The other half who live in permanent towns are socially and economically disadvantaged with the lowest income in the country.

Post Disclaimer | Support Us

Support Us

The sailanmuslim.com web site  entirely supported by individual donors and well wishers. If you regularly visit this site and wish to show your appreciation, or if you wish to see further development of sailanmuslim.com, please donate us

IMPORTANT : All content hosted on sailanmuslim.com is solely for non-commercial purposes and with the permission of original copyright holders. Any other use of the hosted content, such as for financial gain, requires express approval from the copyright owners.

Sailan Muslim

Our purpose is to secure and promote the legitimate interests of the Sri Lankan Muslims, considering as legitimate only those Muslim interests that are consistent with the national interest. It is apolitical and non profit making effort. The other reason is that Muslim politicians have been marginalized to a serious extent over many decades, and cannot therefore fully represent Muslim interests. An effective Muslim website can be useful in bringing about this change. Our aim is to unite our community to speak with one voice and to promote an understanding and interactive dialogue with other communities. We are dedicated to make this website a success with the objective of promoting truth, justice and harmony among all citizens of Sri Lanka with unbiased, accurate, truthful and balanced information. More @ About Us Disclaimer The entire content of this website (sailanmuslim.com) is for information purposes only. Individual comments, news, Articles and stories are based upon the opinions of the respective authors, who retain copyright as marked. The information on this website is intended as a sharing of knowledge and Information only. Sailan Muslim Foundation.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button

Discover more from Sri lanka Muslims Web Portal

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading