Violation: setting fire to Othman Bin Afaan mosque
Location: al-Mughayyir village / Ramallah
Date: November 12/2014
Perpetrators: price tag gangsters
Victims: residents of the village
It has been recently noticed that the fanatic colonists of Israel have escalated their attacks on religious sites. Such attacks were represented in setting sites ablaze. This became as reoccurring as the attacks on olives after the violations against al-Aqsa mosque took a new extreme.
The Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir near Ramallah witnessed on Wednesday November 12th 2014 a new crime of torching Othman Bin Affan mosque. The gangsters of Price Tag carried out this attack, which comes as the second after they burnt down the grand mosque of the village three years ago. The mosque of Othman was established in 1990 and by 1995 another floor of 180m2 was annexed to it.
The chairman of the village council Faraj al-Na'san told Land Research Center the story as follows:
" at 1:30 a.m. , a group of fanatic colonists accompanied by a patrol of military jeeps sneaked to the center of the village where they headed towards the mosque and broke its windows, throwing a flammable substance inside. The result was the total burn down of the first floor and its facilities. As for the second floor, the flames caused it to crack as per the high temperature. People of the town noticed the glow of fire and rushed to the place to extinguish it with help of Civil Defense which came late to the place but managed to control the fire.
An engineer from the Ministry of Endowment to the LRC researcher stated the following :
" damages were reported as the following: the ceiling fell down in the first floor where the second floor cracked down. In addition , the whole interior of carpets and wood cabinets were totally burnt down. Noteworthy, a number of copies of the holey Quran were burnt down as a result. Not only that, doors and windows were pulled out and the facilities of the mosque itself were badly affected. The mosque is now unusable and the total losses that followed this attack were estimated with 130,000INS.
The chairman of the Islamic Affairs and Endowment in Ramallah to the LRC researcher stated the following:
" the attacks on religious sites such like al-Aqsa mosque and any other place is considered a dogmatic war carried out by the occupation, which did not only stop looting lands and natural resources but went further to violate the religious sites of Muslims and Christians as well. What happened in the village today is a clear-cut evidence on the Israeli criminal attitude. Despite all evidences on colonists complicity in the attack, the occupation covered and protected them instead of taking legal actions.
Land Research Center sees in the colonists attack on this religious site as on others under the heavy protection and support of the Israeli army a direct breach and violation of the international conventions that asserted the right to worship as follows :
Geneva fourth Convention
Article 27:
Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.
CONVENTION RESPECTING THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR ON LAND
Article 56:
The property of municipalities, that of institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, even when State property, shall be treated as private property.
All seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions of this character, historic monuments, works of art and science, is forbidden, and should be made the subject of legal proceedings.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
