Acts of desecration
Besides the article Turkey Invites Pope In 2006 (September 16) was a picture showing the Pope greeting Sephardic chief rabbi Shlomo Amar. The caption also says that Israel's chief rabbis urged Pope Benedict to forcefully deplore the destruction of...
Besides the article Turkey Invites Pope In 2006 (September 16) was a picture showing the Pope greeting Sephardic chief rabbi Shlomo Amar. The caption also says that Israel's chief rabbis urged Pope Benedict to forcefully deplore the destruction of synagogues in Gaza by Palestinians after the Israeli withdrawal.
On September 10 The Times published an article entitled Israeli Army Razes Last Gaza Posts As Pull-Out Looms. In this article it is stated, and I quote, "'It is very difficult for me to give the order to destroy the synagogues,' Shaul Mofaz told Israel radio". It was not indicated in this article that Mr Mofaz, a former chief of staff, is the Minister for Defence.
Further down it was also stated: "Rejecting an appeal by leading rabbis, Israel's High Court cleared away the last legal obstacle to the pull-out when it backed the government's plan to demolish synagogues in the Gaza settlements. But Mr Mofaz put the demolition on hold saying the Cabinet would have the last word tomorrow". Why was the government's plan not implemented?
TV pictures showed that the synagogues were denuded of everything of religious value or of deserving veneration. So the Israelis expected that the denuded, evacuated and unused synagogues be left untouched.
In other words, if synagogues as described are demolished by the Palestinians they would be committing an act of desecration.
But what would one make of what follows?
On June 6, two weeks before the scheduled meeting in Jerusalem between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, 3,000 Israeli police invaded the al-Aqsa mosque, in Jerusalem, accompanying Jewish visitors to what they call the Temple Mount.
One is more probably inclined to believe that neither the police nor the visitors condescended to take off their shoes before entering the mosque. And the question arises: Did not the act of invading the mosque amount to desecration?
After the Six-Day War Israel took possession of the West Bank and Gaza and put them under military occupation and the Israeli army lost no time in demolishing and razing about 420 villages not sparing mosques and cemeteries. Was this not also an act of desecration?