Friday, November 14, 2014
Melanie Phillips: Channeling incitement through Abbas’s free pass
As if the escalating terrorist attacks in Israel over the past few weeks haven’t been bad enough, what has been so dismaying is the way the West simply refuses to acknowledge what is happening in front of its eyes.
Numerous Western media outlets described the murderous attacks by Palestinians ramming their cars into Israelis in the street as “car crashes” or “traffic accidents.”
Yet Fatah’s official Facebook page featured cartoons, lyrics and other messages encouraging Palestinians to run over Israelis with their vehicles. Preposterously, it raved that the Aksa mosque was under threat. “Run over, friend, run over the foreign settler!” it screamed. “The Jews are defiling al-Aksa – will you not rage?” As the director-general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry Yossi Kuperwasser said this week, the violence – which has developed into stabbing attacks – is the inevitable result of the systematic dehumanization of Jews ingrained in Palestinians’ psyche from early childhood. Day in, day out they are told that the Jews are “the descendants of apes and pigs,” that they have “no historical connection to Jerusalem,” that they are “defiling” the city with their presence and that those who kill them are heroes.
Such venomous indoctrination is being perpetrated by Palestinian school textbooks, social media, cultural activities – and by Mahmoud Abbas. This supposedly moderate Palestinian leader has now revealed himself openly as a principal instigator of violence and mass murder.
Fatah Official: Palestinians Who Sell Land to Jews Should Be Hanged on Electric Poles
Exclusive: Hamas bombed Fatah officials' homes and faked ISIS claim of responsibility
It was Hamas that bombed homes and vehicles belonging to Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip last Friday, making sure to forge a false claim of responsibility by the Islamic State in Gaza, a Western intelligence source speaking exclusively to The Jerusalem Post revealed on Thursday.
The incident – which caused damage but no injuries – was conducted by Hamas’s armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, without a heads-up to its political leaders, the source said.
“We will not allow the return of internal conflicts, chaos and anarchy to the Gaza Strip,” Hamas spokesman Eyad al-Bozom said after the blasts. “The security services will pursue anyone who had any connection to these criminal acts until they are brought to justice.”
The intelligence source said such activities may form a pattern of operation conducted by Hamas when it wants to hurt its rivals without being blamed.
The source added that the explosion at the French Cultural Center in Gaza City on October 7 was the work of Izzadin Kassam. In that case as well, Hamas issued a false claim alleging Islamic State responsibility.
Fear and Loathing in Jerusalem
The current atmosphere in Jerusalem is reminiscent of the Second Intifada's opening days, in the autumn of 2000. Tension and fear. A sense of foreboding.World Jewish Congress Chief Ronald Lauder: Recent Anti-Israel Riots ‘Looked More Like 1936 Than 2014′
"I can feel it in my bones, what's coming," says Daniella, a native Jerusalemite who owns a restaurant in central west Jerusalem, and whose sister was killed in a suicide bombing in 2002.
What's coming, she and many others think, is more violence.
There are fewer pedestrians on the streets. People have become cautious and alert in public places. Most of all, a familiar, stoic melancholy has returned.
The wave of shootings, automobile attacks and stabbings that hit the city this month has had a profound affect. The faces of the innocents murdered are all over the news. Talk of a Third Intifada is everywhere.
Yet atmospherics notwithstanding, in a number of substantive ways the current reality differs sharply from the time of the two intifadas (1987-92 and 2000-04).
World Jewish Congress (WJC) president Ronald Lauder compared anti-Israel protests during the summer to an era when Adolf Hitler ruled Germany and the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws were enforced in the country.Will Obama Abandon Israel at the UN? Abbas Wants to Find Out
“This past summer looked more like 1936 than 2014,” Lauder said before a crowd of 500 at the WJC annual gala on Tuesday evening in New York. “You all saw the pictures, the huge anti-Israel demonstrations throughout the Middle East and Europe that quickly turned into the lowest form of anti-Jewish riots.”
The most notorious of the riots took place in France, Germany and Turkey where calls for the murder of Jews were heard in the streets while Israel conducted a military operation in Gaza aimed at stemming incessant rocket fire from the coastal enclave.
If you want an indication of how Middle East governments are adjusting their calculus according to the Obama administration’s decision to loudly distance itself from Israel, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s deliberations over his UN strategy is a good place to start. Abbas is planning to ask for a vote requiring Israel to withdraw to the 1967 lines at the United Nations Security Council. But he’s unsure about the timing, and President Obama’s flagging support for Israel is one reason why.Psaki: Demolition of Terrorists' Homes is 'Counterproductive'
As Raphael Ahren discusses today at the Times of Israel, the current makeup of the Security Council’s rotating members–the supporting cast to the five permanent members–is not as amenable to Palestinian demands as next year’s roster will be. But then there’s the Obama factor. It would seem prudent for Abbas to wait, since he needs nine votes out of fifteen. But he also knows that if he gets those nine votes, the measure will be subject to the veto power of the permanent members of the council. That really means the United States, in this context. And the Palestinians think this might be their best window to get the U.S. to abandon Israel at the UNSC:
Israel on Thursday ordered the demolition of the home of a terrorist who carried out a tractor attack in Jerusalem this past summer, raising the ire of the United States.State Dept. Replaces Jen Psaki With Copy Of Mein Kampf (satire)
The terrorist whose home is to be demolished is Mohammed Jabis, who slammed his tractor into a bus in Jerusalem in August, killing Rabbi Avraham Walles and injuring six other people.
According to a report in Haaretz, Jabis’s family received notification about the impending demolition. Jabis himself was killed by security forces after carrying out the attack.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked about the demolition during her daily press briefing on Thursday.
“Well, we believe that punitive demolitions are counterproductive to the cause of peace and exacerbate an already tense situation,” was Psaki’s response.
“Beyond that, I don’t have any additional details on their plans,” she added.
The comments mark the second time in two days that Psaki has criticized Israel. On Wednesday, the State Department spokeswoman sharply condemned Israeli plans to build 200 new Jewish homes in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood, warning such moves would only "exacerbate" spiraling tensions in the city.
She also blasted an arson attack on mosque in a Palestinian Arab village, which Palestinian Authority security officials blamed on "extremists Jewish settlers" - despite reports that it may have been a deliberately misreported electrical fire.
The appointment of Hitler’s screed removes one of the major shortcomings of the State Department spokeswoman, namely that she strove, often awkwardly, to project the Obama administration’s pursuit of even-handedness in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even at the expense of credibility and moral clarity. Psaki’s efforts resulted in the bizarre and disturbing equation of Israeli civilians murdered with the deaths of their murderers at the hands of security forces at the scene as “equally tragic.” Mein Kampf suffers from none of that mealy-mouthed rhetoric, unambiguously siding with the enemies of the Jews.Spain to vote November 18 on Palestinian state recognition
The shift toward open antagonism to Israel and Jews in the Obama administration has long been palpable, but this is the first instance of its extent. An earlier inquiry investigated the possibility of replacing Vice President Joe Biden with seventeenth-century Cossack leader Bohdan Chmielnicki, but foundered on basic constitutional issues.
Psaki is expected to accept a position as spokeswoman for the lobbying organization J Street.
Spain's parliament will hold a symbolic vote on November 18 over recognition of a Palestinian state, according to a report in Spanish newspaper El País.Thousands protest in Israel, West Bank after Friday prayers
The vote initiative is being spearheaded by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in order to urge the government "to recognize 'Palestine' as a state... with the belief that coexistence between the states of Israel and 'Palestine' can be achieved through dialogue and negotiations that guarantee peace and security, respect for citizen's human rights, and stability in the region."
The possibility of a recognition vote was first reported on October 17, following shortly after Britain's symbolic Palestinian recognition vote, though a date was not set at the time.
At the end of October, an Israeli petition calling on the Spanish parliament to recognize a Palestinian state garnered 469 signatures.
Among those spearheading the Israeli initiative was former Foreign Ministry director-general Alon Liel, in hopes that Palestinian statehood recognition would help break the stalemate in the peace process.
Around 1,500 Israeli Arabs were demonstrating Friday afternoon in the town of Umm al-Fahm, east of Hadera, protesting the police’s killing of an Arab man in Kafr Kanna last week and the ongoing turmoil in Jerusalem. Among the participants were MKs Hanin Zoabi (Balad) and Afu Agbaria (Hadash) as well as Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the radical wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel.Zoabi: Israel is a 'Terror State'
Several hundred people were also demonstrating in nearby Kafr Qara, Ynet reported.
Also Friday, around 300 Palestinians hurled rocks and burned tires at a protest in Hebron, in the West Bank. Security forces said they used rubber bullets and other non-lethal means to disperse the crowds.
Hundreds of Palestinian protesters also briefly blocked a road near Hizme, north of Jerusalem on Friday and threw rocks at security forces. The latter dispersed the protesters using stun grenades after they failed to leave voluntarily, police said.
Arab MKs are among the Israeli Arabs readying to protest in Umm Al-Fahm Friday, as frustrations build in the Arab city over the Temple Mount and the shooting of terrorist Hir Alhamdan in Kafr Kana.After easing prayer restrictions, police brace for possible clashes
Participants not only include Umm Al-Fahm residents, but also MKs Hanin Zoabi (Balad), MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad), and MK Afu Agbaria (Hadash) - as well as Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked northern Islamic movement.
Speaking to reporters Friday afternoon, Zoabi deifantly stated, "we are not afraid of Israel, the terror state."
Zahalka, meanwhile, encouraged the total closure of the Temple Mount - Judaism's holiest site which Muslims claim under the label "the Al-Aqsa Mosque" - to Jews.
"Al-Aqsa is a tangible reality, while the [first and second Jewish] Temple there is a myth," Zahalka claimed. "Any attempt to damage Al-Aqsa will bring greater escalation."
"Anyone who wants tensions to calm [there] should allow [Muslim] prayer there [to resume] and stop pyromaniacs and provocateurs of all sorts from ascending to it," he added.
Police announced late Thursday evening that there would be no age restrictions on Muslim worshipers for weekly prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque Friday, for the first time in weeks.Amman talks publicly boosts King Abdullah custodial role in Jerusalem, Israeli envoy to Jordan says
The decision followed a trilateral meeting in Amman on Thursday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and US Secretary of State John Kerry, after which the top American diplomat said steps had been agreed upon to lower tensions between Israel and the Palestinians over Jerusalem’s contested holy site.
It was not immediately clear if the eased restriction on Temple Mount prayer was one such step.
King Abdullah’s role as the custodian of holy Muslim places in Jerusalem and as a moderate Arab leader in the region was publicly boosted by Thursday’s Amman talks, Israel’s Ambassador to Jordan Daniel Nevo told Army Radio on Friday.Protests erupt in West Bank, Israeli Arab towns after relatively quiet morning in Jerusalem
It also underscored the relationship between Israel and Jordan, even though there was no forthcoming announcement that Amman would return its ambassador to Tel Aviv.
The violence of the past weeks has weakened the King standing with regard to Jerusalem, because it leaves him open to attack by extremists elements in Jordan, Nevo said.
Dozens of Palestinian activists approached a point near the security barrier between Israel and the West Bank town of Kalandiya on Friday morning, and allegedly attempted to try to cross the wall.Hamas: Jerusalem unrest could 'spark new explosion' in Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Palestinian media reported that the Palestinians had succeeded in crossing the barrier using foot bridges and cutting barbed-wire section in support of a Palestinian campaign to "liberation" Jerusalem from Israel, organized by the Popular Resistance Committees.
A Border Police spokesman said security forces at the scene had dispersed the activists who then retreated back into Palestinian territory, adding that the demonstrators did not cross into Israeli territory.
A spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, the Izz a-Din al-Kassam Brigades, said on Thursday that actions by Israel could prove the "spark of a new explosion" in the region.IDF sees wave of support for border policeman held over fatal shooting of Palestinian
In his first public appearance since the end of Gaza's latest war, Abu Ubaida said that Israel was seeking confrontation by escalating its "assault" on Al-Aksa and the people of Jerusalem.
"The spark started in Jerusalem when the settlers burned the teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir and Gaza rose up to defend Jerusalem," Abu Ubaida told several thousand people, among them hundreds of Hamas gunmen and top officials, gathered at a rally in the southern town of Rafah.
Israeli soldiers and Border Police have rallied in support of a border policeman who was arrested over the shooting of two Palestinians in Beitunia, according to news website 0404.Poll: 77% of Israelis oppose anti-Israel Hayom bill
According to the report, hundreds of soldiers sent the website pictures of their army units with support banners for the arrested officer. The pictures are reminiscent of a support campaign for a Nahal Infantry Brigade soldier who in April was filmed in an altercation with Palestinians.
Nadim Nuwara, 17, and Muhammad Abu Thahr, 16, were killed during a May 15 riot in which Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces in Beitunia. Video from security cameras suggested they were shot despite posing no immediate threat to Israeli forces.
Israel Police spokesman Chief Insp. Micky Rosenfeld said the policeman was arrested in connection with Nuwara's death, but not Abu Thahr's, because an autopsy was only carried out on Nuwara's body.
Security forces said they used only rubber bullets to disperse the rioters, but there is suspicion the policeman may have used live ammunition.
His commander was also arrested, on suspicion that he gave an order to use live fire and helped obstruct the military investigation of the incident.
The Jerusalem Municipal Court has extended the border policeman's remand by six days.
A new poll has found that 77 percent of Jewish Israelis oppose the bill seeking to cripple Israel Hayom's operations, which passed its preliminary Knesset reading on Wednesday.Once inside Israel’s hospitals, the ‘terrorist’ becomes the ‘patient’
The results of the survey, conducted by Menachem Lazar's Panels Politics, were aired on the Knesset television channel on Thursday. The poll also found that 15 percent of Israelis support the anti-Israel Hayom bill, while 8 percent have no opinion.
The results closely match those of a poll commissioned by Israel Hayom three weeks ago, which found that 79 percent of Israelis oppose the bill trying to shut down the newspaper.
Accused Hamas terrorist Abdelrahman al-Shaludi was brought with severe gunshot wounds by ambulance to Shaare Zedek Medical Center on October 22. He had been shot by police as he tried to flee the scene at a crowded Jerusalem light rail station where he had allegedly run over bystanders, killing two of them, including a 3-month-old baby, Chaya Zissel Braun.Wealthy Terrorists Don’t Need Foreign Aid
One of Shaludi’s victims, an injured woman, was transported to the hospital at the same time. Doctors at Shaare Zedek opted to treat the terrorist first.
As the doctors saw it, it wasn’t really a choice. Shaludi’s condition was more critical, so he needed more urgent medical attention, regardless of what he had done.
Whatever their opinions about what happens outside the hospital, once they stand within its walls, Israeli physicians, sworn by oath to do no harm and save lives, say they manage to put aside their emotions and treat each and every patient equally.
Last month, a group of international donors including the United States gathered in Cairo to make pledges to give financial aid to help rebuild Gaza in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas this past summer. The amount pledged totaled $5.4 billion with the U.S. kicking in a few hundred million. The bulk of the money will go to aid organizations with the Palestinian Authority also getting a share. But while the world was told that all the money would be used for civilian purposes and to help those who lost their homes in the fighting, there was little doubt that the Hamas rulers of the strip would wind up getting their hands on a good deal of it. But the most curious thing about this exercise in international philanthropy was that no one thought to ask Hamas to pay for at least some of the damage they caused by igniting a bloody war. That’s the question that comes to mind today when you read that the Islamists have been named the world’s second-richest terrorist group.Hamas Threatens Violence Unless Gaza is Rehabilitated
According to Forbes Israel, Hamas is the runner-up to ISIS in the competition for the title of wealthiest terror organization. ISIS has $2 billion in assets while Hamas has only $1 billion. The former’s advantage is that it is now in control of some of Iraq’s oil flow and pulls in up to $3 million a day in revenue from that lucrative business. ISIS also was able to loot hundreds of millions from Mosul’s main bank when it seized that city. It also profits from the brisk trade in hostage ransoms with European nations anteing up large sums to save its citizens in ISIS’s hands. To its credit, the Obama administration has refused to play along, a principled policy that has led to the brutal murders of American captives.
The so-called “military wing” of the Hamas terrorist group warned Thursday of renewed violence unless Israel allows the reconstruction of Gaza, AFP reported.'Naval smuggling routes becoming more attractive for Gazan arms smugglers'
"We are saying to all sides -- if the siege on Gaza and the obstacles for reconstruction remain, there will be a new explosion," said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
The United Nations brokered a deal allowing the delivery of construction materials to Gaza by ensuring they will not be diverted by Hamas.
Last week, the UN announced the temporary reconstruction mechanism was to be launched under the auspices of a newly-formed Palestinian unity government.
In recent months, the Israel Navy has intercepted a number of attempts by Gazan terrorists to smuggle weapons and goods to the Strip by sea, as naval smuggling routes have become more attractive, a senior navy source told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.In a New Tactic, Islamic Terrorists Attack Egyptian Navy Vessel
“This poses a threat. There have been a number of smuggling attempts in recent months that we have thwarted. We are monitoring the area day and night; thwarting smuggling is one of our central missions. We will not allow Hamas to build up its [military] force via sea smuggling,” the source stated.
The increase in attempts to smuggle weapons and contraband into Gaza involves Palestinian fishing boats that head out into the Mediterranean, sail to the Egyptian coast, load cargo, and attempt to return to Gaza. The route has been used for years, but the scope of such attempted runs is expanding.
“There has been an increase in these attempts in light of strict Egyptian enforcement against smuggling on the ground in Sinai,” the source said. “This has made sea channels more attractive.”
The Egyptian military said that one of its navy vessels came under a terrorist attack in the Mediterranean Sea yesterday, leaving eight servicemen missing at sea and presumed dead, and another five wounded.Does Israel have reason to target Syrian nuclear experts?
Four boats used by the assailants were destroyed and more than 30 of the suspected fighters were arrested, Al-Jazeera TV reported.
According to foreign news reports, Israel has occasionally – at least times – interfered in the civil war by sending its air force to bomb convoys of Syrian trucks heading with sophisticated weapons bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel perceives any ground, sea and air missiles supplied to Hezbollah as a threat to its military posture. But not when it comes to the now-negligible and practically non-existent Syrian nuclear program.ISIS and Al-Nusra Front Agree to Work Together
Thus, there is no incentive for Israel to risk its intelligence-gathering operatives and military forces by being involved in such an operation. In simple words, Syria no longer poses a serious military – not to mention nuclear – threat to Israel. So why bother? Furthermore, it is not the first time that Syrian nuclear scientists were targeted during the civil war. In a similar incident in July of last year, six people working at the same center were killed in a mortar attack carried out by anti-government militants.
It seems more likely that it was another act of violence by one of the rival groups fighting the Assad regime. Or, one should not rule out that it was an act of revenge – an inside job by the regime itself, for whatever reason.
The leaders of the Islamic State (ISIS) and Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, have agreed on a plan to stop fighting each other and work together against their opponents, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Thursday.Islamic State to mint its own currency
A high-level Syrian opposition official and a rebel commander told the news agency that the agreement was made in a gathering at a farm house in northern Syria last week.
Such an accord could present new difficulties for Washington's strategy against ISIS, according to AP. While warplanes from a U.S.-led coalition strike terrorists from the air, the Obama administration has counted on arming "moderate" rebel factions to push them back on the ground.
The Islamic State jihadist group announced Thursday it will start minting its own currency for use in areas under IS control in Syria and Iraq.UN: Islamic State committing ‘crimes against humanity’ in Syria
“God willing, coins of several types will be minted from gold, silver and copper,” the IS said in a statement distributed on jihadist forums.
The aim was to replace “the tyrannical currency system that was imposed on the Muslims, and which led to their oppression.”
The IS said its circulation of the new coins, to counter the widely-used US dollar, would free Muslims “from profiteering, satanical economic oppression,” and it posted pictures of what the coins would look like.
The Islamic State group is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on a large scale in areas under its control in war-ravaged Syria, UN investigators said Friday.Islamic State leader emerges, calls for attacks on Saudi Arabia
In its first report focused squarely on acts by the IS group, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria presented a horrifying picture of what life is like in areas controlled by the extremist jihadists, including massacres, beheadings, torture, sexual enslavement and forced pregnancy.
“The commanders of ISIS have acted willfully, perpetrating these war crimes and crimes against humanity with clear intent of attacking persons with awareness of their civilian or ‘hors de combat’ (non-combat) status,” the report said, using an alternate acronym for IS.
“They are individually criminally responsible for these crimes,” it stated, and called on the perpetrators to be brought to justice, for instance before the International Criminal Court.
In a recording released days after he was reported wounded in an airstrike, the leader of the Islamic State group said the U.S.-led coalition's campaign had failed and it would eventually have to send ground troops into battle.Is Turkey heading for a train wreck with the West?
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on his followers to "explode the volcanoes of jihad everywhere" and for attacks against the rulers of Saudi Arabia, according to the 17-minute message posted online Thursday. The recording appeared authentic, matching previous ones from the group.
The statement surfaced four days after Iraqi officials said al-Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike in Iraq. It was not clear when the recording was made, but there were references to events since the weekend -- including pledges of allegiance to the Islamic State group by militants in Libya and Egypt.
Turkey’s foreign policy is becoming more aggressively Islamist by the day. How far can it go before it ruins its relationship with the West? Or perhaps the question should be, what would Turkey have to do to get kicked out of NATO? Quite a lot, it turns out.Twelve Turkish nationalists released after attack on U.S. sailors
Ankara is set to take over the presidency of the G20 next month, and aims to use the opportunity to promote its image as a global economic power and assuage its self-image as a country increasingly isolated on the world stage and buffeted by conflict on its southern frontiers.
According to a Pew Research Center poll released in July, only 19 percent of Turks view the US positively, and 25% feel that way about the EU.
Moreover, seven in 10 Turks have an unfavorable view of NATO.
Twelve Turkish nationalists detained after an attack on U.S. sailors in Istanbul were released on Thursday but could still face charges for causing insult and injury, local media reports said.More criticism for 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar
The group assaulted the three sailors on a crowded street in Istanbul on Wednesday, shouting "Yankee go home", throwing paint and trying to pull hoods over their heads, in an assault condemned by the United States.
The group, members of the nationalist Turkish Youth Union (TGB), were told they faced possible charges of insult, injury and breaching laws on public protests in an Istanbul court before being released by the prosecutor, the Dogan News Agency (DHA) said.
Amnesty International says that 2022 World Cup host nation Qatar is lagging behind on addressing concerns about the abuse of migrant workers, six months after it laid out plans for labor reforms.Mecca Plan for Luxury Malls, Palace Sparks Outrage
The 12-page Amnesty report shows that workers brought in to redevelop the country for the 2022 World Cup are continually being "immoderately exploited." Dangerous working conditions, unpaid wages and forced labor are the human rights activists' main concerns. The government have taken few if any steps to punish the abuse of the workforce or improve their health care, they say.
The International Trade Union Confederation warned in June that as many as 4,000 migrant workers could die in construction site accidents by the time the 2022 tournament kicks off. The main problem: the heat and long working hours prevalent in Qatar cause many workers to collapse.
In Mecca, rapid new construction has already destroyed hundreds of historic monuments. Now, reports the Independent, even the site where Mohamed is said to have been born is about to be replaced by a huge royal palace.
The multi-year, multi-billion dollar project centers around the expansion of Mecca’s Grand Mosque to increase its capacity to handle the millions of pilgrims who come to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage.
But many are shocked at the destruction of hundreds of historic buildings and monuments to make way for the Grand Mosque’s expansion. According to the Washington-based Gulf Institute, some 95 per cent of Mecca’s 1,000 year-old buildings have already been destroyed, slated for replacement by luxury hotels, apartments, and shopping malls.
Dr. Irfan Alawi of the UK-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, one of the few voices to dare publicly oppose the destruction, said that even the House of Mawlid, believed to be where Mohamed was born in AD570, is likely to be destroyed before the end of the year. It will be replaced by a new royal palace to be built for King Abdullah, the formal custodian of the mosque, for his visits to Mecca.
Many critics of the construction process are unwilling to come forward publicly for fear of being targeted by the regime.
