Palestinians: 'Looting and burning' of Jewish holy sites 'was a great joy'
Pastor Dale Morgan
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Palestinians: 'Looting and burning' of Jewish holy sites 'was a great joy'*
Posted: February 27, 2007
News from Israel
TEL AVIV – The ruins of two large synagogues in Gush Katif, the
evacuated Jewish communities of the Gaza Strip, have been transformed
into a military base used by Palestinian groups to fire rockets at
Israeli cities and train for attacks against the Jewish state, according
to a senior terror leader in Gaza.
When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, it left in tact
20 synagogues of the Gush Katif Jewish communities following an Israeli
Cabinet decision against demolishing the structures.
Immediately after the Israeli evacuation was completed, Palestinians
mobs destroyed most of the Gaza synagogues, including two major
synagogues in Neve Dekalim, the largest Gush Katif community. In front
of international camera crews, the Palestinians ripped off aluminum
window frames and metal ceiling fixtures from the Neve Dekalim
synagogues, which were situation close to each other in the center of
town. Militants flew the Palestinian and Hamas flags from the structures
before mobs burned down the synagogues.
Abu Abir, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees terrorist
organization, said the area where the synagogues once stood now is used
to fire rockets at Israel.
"We are proud to turn these lands, especially these parts that were for
long time the symbol of occupation and injustice, like the synagogue,
into a military base and source of fire against the Zionists and the
Zionist entity," Abu Abir said.
"The liberated lands of the destroyed ugly and Nazi settlements [Gush
Katif] is our property, and we have the right to do whatever we feel is
suitable for the struggle against the occupation and for the general
interest of the Palestinian people," the Committees leader said.
The Committees is a coalition of terrorist organizations operating in
the Gaza Strip and the West Bank responsible for launching hundreds of
rockets from Gaza aimed at nearby Jewish towns. The group is accused of
bombing a U.S. convoy in Gaza in 2003 in which three American government
contractors were killed.
Abu Abir blamed the Palestinian desecration of the Gaza synagogues on
the Jewish state, claiming the decision to leave the structures in tact
was part of an Israeli conspiracy.
"The Zionists left these so called synagogues in order to make that one
day media outlets would raise the pathetic and rude argument about what
we have done to the poor Zionists holy places. (Israel) left the
synagogues behind so the world would see the Palestinians destroying
them," Abu Abir said.
The terrorist leader claimed the mob destruction of the synagogues was
not planned but was a spontaneous outburst of "happiness."
"The looting and burning of the synagogues was a great joy. There was no
intention to desecrate them but this was part of the great joy the young
men had when they destroyed everything that could remind us of the
occupation. It was in an unplanned expression of happiness that these
synagogues were destroyed."
Prior to the Gaza withdrawal, Israel's Supreme Court ruled the Gaza
synagogues should be bulldozed by the Israeli army, citing what it said
was previous Palestinian desecrations of other religions' holy sites as
justification for the synagogue demolitions. But then-Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, who said he opposed the demolitions, put the decision to
Cabinet vote. The Cabinet decided against destroying the structures.
Israel's chief rabbinate had petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the
synagogue destructions, arguing the demolitions contravene Jewish law.
Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen, a member of the chief rabbinate, explained
that at the time: "According to Jewish law, synagogues cannot be
destroyed unless new ones are already built, and even then, the issues
are complicated. Here, the former Gaza residents don't have homes yet to
live in, new synagogues have not been built, so there isn't even a
question."
The senior rabbis also expressed fear Jews in other parts of the world
may use bulldozings of the Gaza synagogues as precedent to destroy other
abandoned synagogues.
Upon being informed of the current status of the synagogue ruins, Dror
Vanunu, a former Gush Katif resident who said he prayed daily at the
Neve Dekalim synagogues, said that he was "sick to his stomach."
"It sends pain straight to my heart and makes me sick to my stomach. In
any other part of world this would be unacceptable, but where is the
media? Where is the international outcry condemning use of a holy site
for terrorism?" commented Vanunu, who is the international coordinator
for the Gush Katif Committee, a major charity organization representing
Gaza's former Jewish residents, most of whom are living in temporary
housing units.