Awkaf in Jerusalem condemns Jewish Israeli settlers attack on Muslim cemetery

[ 25/05/2009 - 09:45 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

The Awkaf committee that caters for Muslim graveyards in the occupied city of Jerusalem has strongly condemned Sunday the cruel attack on the Rahma cemetery at the hands of fanatic Jewish Israeli settlers.

According to the committee, the settlers, who are believed to be protected by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF), assaulted and destroyed many tombs in the graveyard in a clear act of desecration of the cemetery.

Chairman of the committee Mustafa Abu Zahra described the attack as "vicious and condemned desecration of a Muslim site in Jerusalem", adding that families of those buried there were extremely angry at the incident.

Eyewitnesses in the city asserted that while they were on their way to the Aqsa Mosque to perform dawn prayer on Friday, they saw a group of Israeli settlers defacing and destroying the graves before they (the settlers) fled from the place after they realized they were exposed.

According to Abu Zahra, the attack was part of a broader Israeli plan to Judaize Jerusalem, and to distort all Muslim milestones in it with the aim alter its Muslim identity.

The Israeli occupation government strives hard to ensure Jewish majority in the city, and to displace Palestinian Jerusalemites out of it.

The incident wasn’t isolated, underlined Abu Zahra, adding that many Jewish settlers' attacks had taken place in the past against the Mamanullah cemetery and other Muslim and Christian holy shrines in the occupied city.

However, Abu Zahra confirmed that Muslim cemeteries will remain for Muslims, and that the Palestinian Jerusalemites would defend those Muslim sites with all possible means, and to the last drop of their blood.