Israel Demolishes Grave Stones of the Prophet's
 Companions Buried in Jerusalem

On Wednesday (04.08.2010) morning, Israeli machinery began the sweeping of a number of graves in the historic Islamic Ma'man Allah cemetery in occupied Jerusalem which contains dozens of tombs dating back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Heritage and Endowments said: "Machinery and bulldozers belonging to the Israeli municipal authorities in Jerusalem have dug up and destroyed 15 tombs in the Ma'man Allah cemetery located in the far north east of Jerusalem. This action is in accordance with Judaisation plans for the Holy city which aims at ridding Jerusalem of all that is Arab and Islamic". 

In a copy of a written statement sent to 'Quds Press', the Foundation clarified that the Israeli violation had "occurred after the Al-Aqsa Foundation undertook to cooperate in the upkeep of the cemetery carrying out maintenance and repairs and cleaning it."

The Al-Aqsa Foundation condemned the act as an 'odious crime' and said that it would "continue with the maintenance and preservation of the Ma'man Allah cemetery; taking care of the tombs inside of it and undertaking the full legal and religious responsibilities toward our graves and our dead."

The Ma'man Allah cemetery is one of the largest Muslim cemeteries in the area estimated at approximately two hundred dunams.

Credible Palestinian sources confirm that the Ma'man Allah cemetery contains the remains of a number of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) such as 'Ubadah bin Samit and many graves belonging those from the generation that followed the companions. The cemetery also contains the graves of numerous other notables of Islam, martyrs and righteous individuals.

Israel "has declared war on the living and the dead to erase Palestinian identity"

An Arab member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has called the authorities' destruction of hundreds of graves in the Muslim Ma'aman Allah Cemetery in Jerusalem "a declaration of war against living and dead Palestinians".

Massoud Ghanayem said that this "declaration of war" is Israel's way of "imposing its agenda and trying to erase Palestinian identity and distort the identity of the land". Such action, he added, "proves that Israel is still acting with brutality against icons of Palestinian identity in the drive to confiscate Arabs' and Muslims' rights in the city of Jerusalem".

The United Arab List MK drew attention to the fact that Ma'aman Allah Cemetery is "a cultural legacy and an important part of Jerusalem's history, the loss of which should be of concern to the Israeli government even as it aims to Judaize the Holy City".

Israeli authorities destroy over 200 tombs in Jerusalem’s Ma’man Allah cemetery


The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Heritage and Endowments has revealed that after midnight on 10 August, bulldozers of the Israeli Occupation dug up and completely removed more than 200 tombs from the Ma’man Allah cemetery in Jerusalem, which is the oldest and largest Islamic burial site in the city. Ma’man Allah is also the burial ground for a number of the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) as well as scholars, notables, martyrs and the general Muslim population of Jerusalem.

A crew from the Al-Aqsa Foundation has maintained a continuous presence at the cemetery since the Magistrate’s court ruling on Monday afternoon permitting the destruction of the tombs. The crew, which includes Mr. Fawaz Hassan, an observer of the work of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, the journalist Mahmoud Abu ‘Ata, the media co-ordinator for the Al-Aqsa Foundation and Mr. Sharaf Ahmad, the Al-Aqsa Foundation’s press photographer, has been closely monitoring the activities of the Israeli Occupation both day and night.

The al-Aqsa crew inside the cemetery have confirmed that bulldozers, trucks and a large number of staff and Israeli state representatives under police escort stormed the cemetery at exactly 12:30 after midnight. The bulldozers along with the excavation and demolition equipment were divided into two groups; one group began with the destruction and excavation of the tombs on the western side of the cemetery, and the other group destroyed and removed graves on the south-eastern side.

Within minutes of these developments, the Al-Aqsa Foundation immediately informed the Arab media of the unfolding events and had gathered a large crew of photographers and journalists on the scene. The Israeli Occupation and their police escort tried to prevent the photographers and journalists from filming or carrying out their professional duties. One of the photographers was attacked by a bulldozer driver who attempted to run him over, however, the journalists and photographers insisted on carrying out their work to document the Israeli crime. During the demolition operation, a quarrel broke out between the police and the representatives of the Israeli state due to the Muslim presence. Al-Hajj Mustafa Abu Zahra, one of the cemetery’s endowment trustees arrived at Ma’man Allah during the destruction and tried to stop the bulldozers from continuing with their crimes; however the police intervened and prevented him from doing so.

It is worth mentioning here that the actions of the Israeli Occupation came after the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Heritage and Endowment and the trustees of the cemetery’s endowment, al-Hajj Sami Rizq Allah Abu Mukh and al-Hajj Mustafa Abu Zahra, had undertaken the restoration, repair and maintenance of hundreds of graves that were at risk of disappearing due to repeated Israeli attacks. However, this does not appear to have satisfied the Israeli authorities.

Hanna urges churches worldwide to prevent Israeli decimation of historic Christian sites

Thursday, 05 August 2010 16:00

Theodosios Atallah Hanna, Archbishop of Sebastia from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, has called upon churches internationally to immediately intervene to prevent Israel from continuing to obliterate features of Christianity in the Palestinian town of Ein Karem situated west of Occupied Jerusalem.
 
Accompanied by his lawyer Keis Youssef Naser, Hanna visited Ein Karem on Wednesday (04.08.2010) to examine the Christian sites threatened by the Occupation.
 
Following the visit, Hanna made an urgent appeal to all churches and church leaders to follow up on this issue and to take legal measures to prevent the Israeli authorities from building on these sites which represent the Christian history of Palestine.

He called upon the Christian world to take necessary measures to protect these sites, and warned that heritage sites linked to the First Church and Christian presence in the first four centuries AD were being targeted.
 
It is worth mentioning that the Palestinian town of Ein Karem, west of Jerusalem, is considered one among hundreds of Arab-Palestinian towns that were obliterated by the Israeli Occupation. The Israeli hospital of Hadassah Ein Karem and other official Israeli buildings now exist on the rubble of the town.

Source: Quds Press

.Jews, Plague and Debt — A Lesson from History

 In the year 1349 there occurred the greatest epidemic that ever happened.  Death went from ne end of  the  earth to the other, on that side and this side of the sea, and it was greater among the Saracens  than among the Christians.  In some lands everyone died so that no one was left.   Ships were also found on the sea laden with wares; the crew had all died and no one guided the ship.  The bishop of Marseilles and priests and monks and more than half of the people there died with them.  In other kingdoms and cities so many people perished that it would be horrible to describe.  The pope at Avignon stopped all sessions of court,  locked himself in a room, allowed no one to approach him and had a fire burning in a circle around  him all the time.  And from what this epidemic came, all wise teachers and physicians could only say that it was God’s will.  And as the plague was no here, so was it in other places, and lasted more than a whole year.  This epidemic came to Strasbourg in the summer of the above-mentioned year, and it is estimated that about sixteen thousand people died.

In the matter of this plague the Jews throughout the world were reviled and accused in all lands of having caused it through the poison which they are said to have put into the water and the wells – that is what they were accused of – and for this reason the Jews were burnt all the way from the Mediterranean into Germany, but not in Avignon, for the pope protected them there.

Nevertheless they tortured a number of Jews in Berne and Zofingen who then admitted that they had put poison in the wells.  Thereupon they burnt the Jews in many towns and wrote of this affair to Strasbourg,   Freiburg, and Basel in order that they too should burn their Jews.  But the leaders in these three cities in whose hands the government lay did not believe  that  anything  ought to be done to the Jews.  However in Basel the citizens marched to the city hall and compelled the council to take an oath that they would burn the Jews, and that they would allow no Jew to enter the city for the next two hundred years.  Thereupon the Jews were arrested  in  all  these places  and a conference was arranged to meet at Benfeld.  The bishop of Strasbourg, all the feudal lords of Alsace, and representativbes of the three above-mentioned  cities came there.  The deputies of the city of Strasbourg were asked what they were going to do with their Jews.  They answered and said that they knew no evil of them.  Then they asked the Strasbourgers why they had closed the wells and put away the buckets, and there was a great indignation and clamour against the deputies from Strasbourg.  So finally the bishop and the lords and the Imperial Cities agreed to do away with the Jews.  The result was that they were burnt in many cities, and wherever they were expelled they were caught by the peasants and stabbed to death or drowned. . .
  [The town-council of Strasbourg which wanted to save the Jews was deposed on the 9th/10th of February, and the new council gave in to the mob, who then arrested the Jews on Friday, the 13th.]
 
On Saturday – that was St. Valentine’s Day – they burnt the Jews on a wooden platform in their cemetery.  There were about two thousand people of them.  Those who wanted to be baptize themselves were spared.  Many small children were taken out of the fire and baptized against the will of their fathers and mothers.  And every thing that was owed to the Jews was cancelled, and the Jews had to surrender all pledges and notes that they had taken for debts.  The council, however, took the cash that the Jews possessed and divided among the working men proportionally.   The money was indeed the thing that killed the Jews.  If they had been poor and if the feudal lords had not been in debt to them, they would not have been burnt.  After this wealth was divided among the artisans some gave their share to the cathedral or to the Church on the advice of their confessors.

Rothschild War-Debt-Usury Continues

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