ISRAEL RAZES SHADE STRUCTURES IN YAFFA MUSLIM CEMETRY

Yaffa, 22 Rabu’ul Awwal 1436/13 Januari 2015 (MINA) – Israeli municipal bulldozers on Sunday morning demolished shade structures built a few week ago in Taso cemetery by the elected Islamic council in Yaffa (Jaffa) city.

According to the website Yaffa 48, Israeli municipal workers and bulldozers stormed the cemetery at dawn and removed two shade structures built to protect visitors from sunlight and rains at the pretext of unlicensed construction, The Palestiniian Information Center (PIC) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The Islamic council warned that the demolition of the shade structures in the cemetery would offend the feelings of Muslims in the city.

“Desecrating Taso cemetery and its sanctity is considered a very serious action, and the municipality flouted the feelings of Muslims when it sent its bulldozers to demolish the shades in the cemetery,” the council stated.

Consequently, the Islamic council in the city held an emergency meeting on Sunday evening and decided to organize events and rallies during the current week to protest the demolition of structures in the cemetery.

In a statement released following the meeting, the council strongly condemned the Israeli action as “a barbaric act that can only be done by thugs,” pointing out that the Tel Aviv municipal authorities broke the locks of the cemetery’s main gate at dawn before carrying out the demolition.

It said that it would start on Monday to build three shade structures in the cemetery instead of the razed ones after it had received generous donations from Palestinian citizens in the city.(T/P008/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)