JERUSALEM, 11 June 2005 — The mufti of Jerusalem added his voice yesterday to allegations that copies of the Qur’an had been abused in an Israeli prison as hundreds of Palestinians staged protests in the occupied territories. “The occupation authorities have followed the American example in profaning the holy Qur’an,” Sheikh Ekremah Sabri told worshippers attending the weekly prayers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“The media have reported the abuse committed by the jailers and the police who tore up copies of the Qur’an in front of the heroic detainees at Meggido prison to provoke and humiliate them, and we have corroborated this information,” he added. Palestinian detainees at Meggido in northern Israel accused the authorities earlier this week of deliberately ripping out pages of the Qur’an during a search of their cells, claims which have been rigorously denied by the Israeli prison service.
Around 900 prisoners at Meggido began a three-day protest hunger strike on Wednesday, although the prison service said the fast had ended within less than 24 hours. Dozens of Israeli police reinforcements were deployed to occupied East Jerusalem yesterday for fear of widespread protests at the end of prayers as well as on the perimeter of Al-Aqsa Mosque complex where access was denied to men aged under 45.
Around 6,000 Muslims attended the prayers while several hundred more were kept outside, said police. There were no reports of any disturbances. However, the mufti was fiercely critical of the restrictions, saying that they had transformed east Jerusalem into “a giant prison”.
“The border police and policemen are outnumbering the worshippers,” he added. He accused the Israeli government of “looking to satisfy Jewish extremists by allowing them to enter Al-Aqsa with police protection.”
Clashes broke out between Palestinians and police earlier in the week as a group of Israelis toured the compound on Jerusalem Day. Around 1,500 Palestinians staged a protest yesterday in the Gaza Strip against the alleged abuse of the Qur’an, setting ablaze Israeli and American flags in the Beit Lahiya region in the north of the territory. A similar protest was staged in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
The accusations against Israel come after the Pentagon admitted in late May that the Qur’an had been mishandled, kicked and sprayed with urine at the US detention center of Guantanamo Bay on Cuba. The Guantanamo abuse has sparked demonstrations across the Muslim world and violent riots across Afghanistan that left at least 15 people dead and more than 120 hurt.
Meanwhile, some 100 Palestinians burned American and Israeli flags after Friday prayers during a protest against reports of desecration of the Qur’an. The southern Lebanon representative of the Hamas group addressed the protesters in Ein El-Hilweh refugee camp, near the city of Sidon.
“We call upon our brethren in the Al-Kassam Brigades and (other) resistance brigades to be prepared to retaliate for any aggression by the Zionist settlers and soldiers against the sacred Qur’an or the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Abu Ahmed Al-Fadl said.
“We in the Hamas movement cannot stand idly by while these acts of hatred violate our sacred book and mosque,” he said. The text of his speech was faxed to The Associated Press in Beirut.
