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Jaffa Arabs: Don't build hotel at former Muslim cemetery
Hundreds slam plan to build hotel at 'Muslim site'; Sheikh Salah: We'll live blissfully, or die as martyrs
Ali Waked
Hundreds of Jaffa residents and Islamic Movement supporters demonstrated Tuesday in protest of the planned construction of a new hotel in town. The protestors said the site earmarked for the project served as a Muslim cemetery in the past.
The protestors were led by sheikh Raed Salah, who heads the Islamic Movement's northern branch. He pledged that Arab-Israelis will be living on their land blissfully or dying as martyrs.
Salah claimed that 120 mosques and dozens of churches have been razed since the State of Israel's establishment, adding that new neighborhoods were established at sites previously used as cemeteries.
"Why does Israel insist on continuing with its dark crimes against people and against the holy sites 61 years after the Nakba?" he said, adding that Israel's approach attested to its cowardice and wickedness.
"Even if you ruin our lives and even if you harm the graves of the dead, we are determined to live a blissful life on our land, or alternately, die on it as martyrs," he said. "This is our pledge and promise."
Salah added that "despite all the efforts and extortion attempts," Arab residents will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He reiterated his support for a Palestinian right of return, saying that "the day is near where we'll be welcoming the refugees who will return to their homes."
Meanwhile, the hundreds of protestors at the site chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and warned the Tel Aviv city hall against the plan to establish the new hotel, calling on Israel to "stop harming Muslim holy sites."
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_a.jpg "Photo: Yaron Brener")
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