Israeli Arabs protest the Israeli demolition of the mosque foundations

Additional reporting by Samer Khuwayera, Yasser Al BannaIOL Correspondents

GAZA CITY, July 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israel’s demolition of the foundations of a mosque in Nazareth on Tuesday, July 1, was condemned by Arab Israelis and the town residents who accused Israel of trying to pit Muslims and Christians against each other.

Although the previous Israeli government of Ehud Barak had allowed the mosque to be built between the Church of Annunciation and the main street running through Nazareth, Israeli bulldozers razed the foundations Tuesday, arguing its construction was illegal.

Israeli police, who removed hundreds of Muslims from the site, also used jack-hammers to destroy the partly-built mosque.

The move was condemned by the Christian mayor of Nazareth, the largest Arab town in Israel, who accused the Israeli authorities of trying to drive a wedge between Christians and Muslims, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The Israeli authorities want to spread discord between Muslims and Christians," stressed Ramez Jraissi.

Seven Arab Israelis protesting the demolition were arrested while two of the hundreds of police deployed in the area were injured, one of them lightly stabbed.

Among those arrested were deputy Nazareth mayors Salman Abu Ahmad and Ahmad Zwabi, Israeli police said.

Before his arrest, Abu Ahmad had condemned "the barbarous act of destroying a mosque" and called for the city council to resign in protest.

For his part, the deputy chairman of the Islamic Movement (IM) inside the Green Line, dismissed the Israeli decision as "a new occupation of the historic Palestinian city.

"This operation has everything to do with the hard times experienced by the Muslim nation nowadays, particularly after the (U.S.) occupation of Iraq, the imposition of the roadmap on the Palestinian people and the arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah (the IM leader)," Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib told IslamOnline.net.

He hit out at the disunity and incoherence of Muslims worldwide triggered by "the loss of a weighty Muslim country and the downfall of a time-honored Muslim capital, and the subsequent daily sacrilege of mosques, which encouraged those Israelis to destroy the foundations of the mosque."

Israeli mechanical wreckers demolish the mosque foundations

Sheikh al-Khatib asserted that "Israel pays no heed to the feelings of Muslims and Arabs worldwide, though it makes a mountain out of a molehill whenever a Jewish marble-made tombstone in Paris or in Berlin is touched. It is the feebleness of this nation which led to this crime."

Israel's Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said the move was based on a court decision, adding Israel was bound by the rule of law "and we cannot accept an illegal structure, especially on the second holiest site of Christendom."

He told army radio that the mosque was "provocation against the whole of the Christian world", adding that its destruction would "not harm the political process."

Arab Israeli lawmaker Abdel Malek al-Dahamash told AFP that Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon was behind the move.

"We think that the matter was closed but Sharon has reopened it to provoke tension among the people of Nazareth," he said.