Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Yemeni court terminates marriage of 8 year-old

Good news from Yemen, in a follow-up to the sick story I posted a couple of days ago:

A Yemeni court yesterday granted divorce to an eight-year-old girl who sought the help of a court judge to terminate her marriage two months after she was forced into it.
Nojoud Muhammad Nasser lodged a complaint at a court in the capital Sanaa last week against her father who forced her to marry a man 22 years her senior, and asked the judge to secure her divorce.
The girl’s lawyer and human rights activist, Shadha Nasser, said that the court “ordered the marriage to be terminated immediately because she was underage and had not reached puberty.”
The court also ordered the child’s family to pay 50,000 Yemeni rials (about $250) in compensation to the 30-year-old ex-husband.
The amount was paid by a volunteer who was attending the trial, the lawyer said, adding that the compensation was toward the dowry the husband had paid to the girl’s father.
The ruling terminated the marriage instead of granting a divorce to prevent the husband from seeking to reinstate the marriage, according to the lawyer.
Nasser, a human rights activist, said the minor had filed a suit asking for divorce and told the court that her husband had been physically abusing her and forcing her to have “sex with him after hitting her.”
Last week, the court ordered the father and husband to be arrested after hearing the girl’s testimony. The father was later released due to health problems.

Now, if they can put a little sanity in the female genital mutilation depravity....

Gazans want to leave. Badly.

A new poll in Gaza from the "Institute of Development Studies," reported in Palestine Press Agency (Arabic), shows that 80% of Gazans would seriously consider leaving Gaza if they could, while 44% would leave immediately if they could.

Not mentioned was the fact that zero percent of the neighboring Arab countries would accept a single Gazan who wants to move.

So much for "Arab unity."

Yemen's parliament refuses to outlaw female genital mutilation

This is astounding:

SANA’A, April-13 — Preventing female circumcision and pre-marriage medical tests evoked turmoil and disagreement among Parliament members (MPs) in last week’s session.

The session ended with a unanimous agreement to cancel the term 3, which would prevent female circumcision, and delay the discussion of pre-marriage tests.

...
Zid Al-Shami, an MP who suggested delaying the approval of the two terms, confirmed that such topics are “sensitive and need more awareness.”

“I suggested canceling term number three, about preventing female circumcision, for many reasons. First, the term, which was written in the draft, included inappropriate and shameful sentences. Second, female circumcision exists in few regions in Yemen, like in Hodeidah and Hadramout, so it not common practice. And finally, there is still religious debate regarding the issue, so as we have no directives by the heads of religion to forbid female circumcision, we do not have the right to ban it,” Al-Shami explained.

Wikipedia has a good overview of the Islamic debate over FGM, and showing that at least some Islamic scholars do find Islamic legal justifications for this barbarism.

Carter wanted to meet Islamic Jihad, too

Both Palestine Today and Palestine Press Agency report that Egyptian officials invited Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shalah to visit Cairo to meet Jimmy Carter but Shalah refused, saying that Carter is following an "American/Israeli agenda." Shalah has been harshly critical of Khaled Meshaal's planned meeting with Carter.

It would appear that Carter initiated this request to meet with the arch-terrorist. All of the reasons that Carter uses to justify meeting with Hamas - that Hamas has supposedly offered a truce, for example, or that most attacks are not initiated by Hamas - do not apply to Islamic Jihad, yet Carter apparently wants to give legitimacy to Islamic Jihad terrorists anyway.

Meanwhile, Carter plans to meet with a Hamas official in Ramallah and he has already laid a wreath at the grave of his fellow Nobel Prize winner, Yasir Arafat, a man responsible for the deaths of thousands of people who Carter admired greatly.

Palestinian Arab self-death update

Ma'an reports that a 25-year old Arab from Bidya was shot dead by unidentified gunmen, and that the killer may have been an Arab Israeli.

Ma'an Arabic mentions a 35 year old man found murdered in the formerly Jewish town of Netzarim in Gaza. He worked in the "Palestinian intelligence service" and was arrested yesterday by Hamas and tortured. Palestine Press Agency reports that "angry youths" are rioting over his murder.

On the other hand, reports of three dead last Sunday from an explosion in Jabalya seem to have been premature; according to PCHR only one was killed and two seriously wounded. So our count of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by each other this year remains at 61.

What is "criminal" about Jimmy Carter

Compare:

Former US president Jimmy Carter toured Sderot on Monday and said the firing of Kassam rockets from the Gaza Strip at the western Negev is "criminal."
Carter, who made the comment after he was shown the remains of hundreds of rockets that were fired at the town, said he would try to promote a ceasefire in the region.

With:

The Secretary-General condemns rocket fire against Israel by Hamas... He calls on Hamas and other militant groups to cease such acts of terrorism.

To call terrorist acts "criminal" betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the facts and a clear bias towards the terrorists.

The only time I can find Dhimmi Carter condemning rockets to Sderot he also didn't use the word "terrorism," just using the blander "attacks" or the passive "violence" and even-handedly comparing suicide bombing to Israeli defensive actions last February:

The Carter Center condemns the recent Palestinian suicide bombings and rocket fire against Israel and calls on the Palestinian leadership in Gaza to take urgent and immediate measures to halt the spiraling cycle of violence.
At the same time, the Center reiterates its previous calls for Israel to end its siege of Gaza and urges Israel to refrain from further attacks and assassinations against Palestinians. If the Annapolis process is to have any chance to succeed in bringing a lasting peace to the region, Israel and the Hamas leadership in Gaza must negotiate an immediate ceasefire, and all sides must redouble efforts to resolve key issues to enable a viable two-state solution.

The February 4 attack by two Palestinian suicide bombers was the first such attack within Israeli borders in over a year and the first claimed by Hamas since August 2004. Hamas' claim to have resumed the use of suicide bombings against civilians as a means of resistance to Israel is strongly condemned. In addition to these attacks, recent rocket fire has maimed two children in the Israeli town of Sderot. These attacks have led Israeli authorities to call for large-scale retaliatory operations in Gaza and for the assassination of Hamas leaders. Israel retaliatory attacks in eastern Gaza have killed both militants and innocent civilians. A missile dropped on a Palestinian school killed a teacher and wounded several students.

Both the Israeli government and Hamas, which has repeatedly stated in the past that it is willing to negotiate a truce with Israel, should take immediate steps to end the tragic cycle of retaliation.

This is obscene.

Carter equates Israeli actions with those of Hamas,
he attempts to paint Hamas as more interested in peace than Israel by repeating Hamas lies about its interest in a temporary "truce",
he refusese to label even Palestinian suicide attacks as "terrorism,"
he implies that Hamas has been innocent of any terror acts in a 3.5 year period,
he implies that Israel assassinates - purposefully targets - innocent Palestinian Arabs and not only the terrorists,
he seems to be upset about the maiming of two Israeli children only because Israel might retailiate -

--these are all examples of his clear leaning towards the terrorists. Moreover, even though at the time of this press release it was known that the "school" that Israel shot at was a launching pad for Hamas rockets - a war crime - Carter doesn't mention it.

It is sickening.

Rockets being shot at civilians in Sderot is not merely a criminal act, and to label it as such is to downplay it. Jimmy has a rich record of downplaying Arab terror and demonizing Israeli actions, and this is yet another example.

How Israel can win the symbolic war

Palestine Today reports (autotranslated):

Iranian press reports quoted a prominent leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah that the next confrontation between the party and Israel - when it occurs - will be transformed from the defensive to the offensive, where elements of Hezbollah will be fighting the Israelis "behind the lines" "For the first time since the year 1948 Within Palestine itself. "

The anonymous official, who is "a member of Hezbollah's Shura Council," threatened the transfer of clashes to the cities, towns and Israeli settlements themselves.

Ya Libnan reports it as well, with a caveat that Hezbollah saying that it will not begin hostilities:

A high-ranking Hezbollah official has said the party would launch an offensive on Israel in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 in case the Jewish state wages a new war.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the statement in an interview with Syrian magazine "al-Hakika," the Iranian News Agency Fars reported.

"We would not initiate war but in case they wage any war in the future ...there will be a counter attack behind the front lines...and for the first time since 1948 in Palestine itself," the official reportedly said.

As with all the recent wars, the value is symbolic and not strategic. Being able to step foot in "Palestine" would be one more step in erasing Israel's psychological deterrence towards the Arab world's aggressive wishes. Just as when Fatah began, the terrorists want to goad the larger Arab world into attacking Israel and a major means to achieve that is to make Israel look like it is vulnerable and can be defeated. Breaking through the blue line would go a long way towards that goal.

Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations also need to recruit members from the tens of millions of radical Muslims worldwide and in order to do that they need to convince them that it is possible to win. This is one reason (besides the ever-important Arab pride) why every war that Israel wins in a less decisive manner than 1967 is spun as an Arab "victory".

Israel's defense forces need to understand that they need to win not only military victories but also symbolic victories. This is not easy when the Arab bar for "victory" has been lowered as far as it has.

This is why Israel needs to work harder on the symbolism front.

The words that the PA's Abbas Zaki said recently on Lebanese TV point towards what Israel has to do. He said, "The important thing is that in any operation, Israel will pay a price. We don't want cases in which you don't kill even a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that makes Israel pay a heavy price."

This means that Israel need to make sure that every operation hurts the terrorists and their supporters, not only in a military sense but also in a symbolic sense. The rules need to be changed in order to accomplish this. And the easiest, most painless, most humane and most effective way to do it would be to take land each time Israel is forced to respond to attacks. The amount isn't important, the symbolism is. If this policy is done consistently and automatically, the incentive for terror attacks decreases dramatically. It is simply Pavlovian - the Arab people would see that every attack is counterproductive and that they lose something tangible after every outrage. It is a real implementation of "land for peace."

Hezbollah considers Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon to be a victory; a reoccupation of even a square kilometer cannot be spun away. Hamas likewise would need to re-evaluate the rocket weapon if each one resulted in the loss of territory, even if the land is bare desert. Just the fact that Israelis move the fence - a completely symbolic move - would cause many terror supporters to think twice before the next attack. Right now all they are losing is people - a commodity that they do not value; in fact a commodity that is worth more to them dead than alive. People are nothing more than manufactured weapons to them.

Land is not something they can be as cavalier or cynical about. The symbolic value of losing land as a result of evil makes that evil act much less palatable. The symbolic value of re-establishing a Jewish community in Gaza - explicitly as a result of X number of ongoing terror attacks - would be incalculable, and would do more to stop terror than killing 10,000 terrorists.

Britain in even worse shape than I realized

It is one thing to read blog entries about how some Islamists plot to take over the world; it is another thing to read their professional, English-language flyers:

This came from a blog called shariah4britain.wordpress.com.

One of the commenters who attended said:

Alhamdulilah the conference went very well. The speakers got the point across to the audience. Insha’Allah there will be more to come….Untill the flag of Islaam is flying high over the shores of britain (Insha’allah).

The West tends to think of religion as a private, personal matter. To Muslims, however, religion is a political system as much as it is a belief system, as is evident by the quotes in the poster above (emphasis in the original):

“It is he (Allah) who has sent His Messenger (SAW) with guidance and the religion of truth, in order for it to be dominant over all other religions, even though the Mushrikoon (disbelievers) hate it.”
(EMQ at-Tawbah, 9:33)

“Verily Allah has shown me the eastern and western part of the earth, and I saw the authority of my Ummah (nation) dominate all that I saw.”
(Saheeh Muslim, hadeeth no.2889)

As Allah (SWT) has said, this religion (i.e. Islam) is the only religion of truth; and the reason why He has sent us this Deen is, “…in order for it to be dominant over all other religions.” Thus, Allah (SWT) never sent us this Deen as a mere spiritual belief. This Deen has been sent to us by Almighty Allah (SWT) in order for it to be implemented and for the whole of mankind to abide by it.

So while I have been ambivalent about things like Shari'a banking, if the purpose is not to accommodate Muslims but as a means to control non-Muslims it is a completely different matter.

And Great Britain has been showing a very worrying willingness to bend its citizens to Sharia law, as this story of "Muslim men-only swimming hours" at a British public pool shows.

Today's AFP media bias: "Hardline Jews"

The phrase "hardline Jews" appears at least twice in recent AFP reports.

One is in a discussion of Peace Now:

Loathed or loved by many Israelis, Peace Now this week marks 30 years as a movement which has deeply influenced public opinion but not achieved its vision of peace with the Palestinians.

...The peace movement was a counterforce to hardline Jews who settled the West Bank and Gaza Strip after their occupation in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their usage of language certainly makes clear what AFP thinks of Peace Now and of "hardline Jews." You will never see them refer to Peace Now as an "extreme Left group" or as being comprised of "hardline terrorist enablers," both of which are more accurate than to consider them a "peace" group.

Today, we see the identical phrase used in a more curious manner, in a headline, no less:

Hardline Jews make night pilgrimages to West Bank tomb

NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) — Headlights pierce the misty night as the armoured bus packed with hardline Jews winds down the road from a hilltop settlement into the heart of the Palestinian town of Nablus.

Their destination is the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, a pilgrimage site that has become a grim symbol of the region's intractable conflict.

Nearly 100 men wearing black hats or skullcaps and clutching prayer books huddle in the bus, some reading prayers by the light of mobile phones.

"This is a path of devotion for God. I have gone this way dozens of times and will continue doing it," says Benjamin Makhleb, a 23-year-old member of the Hassidic Breslav movement who had come from Jerusalem.

The tense silence that grips this cloak-and-dagger mission gives way to raptured singing and praying as the two buses pass through the checkpoint at the entrance to Nablus, under heavy military escort.

It is just past 2 am.

"This is the cradle of our existence as a Jewish people. Joseph's Tomb is part of every Jew and it is shameful to see us having to sneak in here like thieves in the night," says 23-year-old Nathan Azur.

"It saddens and angers me to see this," says the bearded student from a town near Tel Aviv.

Everyone makes the journey for religious reasons, but for many extreme right-wing Israelis it is also an affirmation of what they see as the Jews' right to control and govern their sacred sites in the Holy Land.

So the desire to have Jews control Jewish sacred sites is the definition, according to AFP, of being an "extreme right-wing Israeli." Of course, this definition works well for those who want to see historic Jerusalem and the rest of Judea and Samaria - where essentially every major Jewish shrine lies - to be Judenrein.

Would AFP consider any Muslims who travel to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque in territory controlled by Jews to be "hardline Muslims" or would that be considered a normal, and normative, human right? Would AFP consider Palestinian Authority members who advocate the Arabization of all of Israel to be "extreme Palestinian nationalists"?

Israel-bashers don't even bother to document their accusations

Someone named "Desert Peace" writes in the "Google News"-approved "news" source MWC News:

THE CAMERA DOES NOT LIE ~~ BUT THE ZIONISTS DO
Case in point is an ‘analysis’ in the most recent bulletin published by a group called “CAMERA’; the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. ‘Accuracy’ to a zionist is nothing more than a lie or cover up about zionist atrocities taking place in Palestine today.

One would expect that the critic of CAMERA will be armed with some facts to show that CAMERA is lying.

One would be wrong.

Their latest target is the New Statesman Magazine for publishing an article last month by my dear Brother Mohammed Omer. Mohammed literally risks his life daily in the process of gathering information to put into articles that he writes for various magazines and newspapers. ‘Armed’ only with his camera and pen, his works have been one of the few voices of truth coming out of Gaza in the past few months.
But, the zionists see this as a threat…. their ’secrets’ are being exposed, their murders are recorded for all to see…. murders that the zionists claim never happened.

The introduction to the ‘CAMERA’ report states…

The New Statesman is a British political weekly magazine whose self-declared aim is to promote socialist ideas “among the educated and influential classes.” A frequent contributor to that magazine (as well as several anti-Israel publications) is Mohammed Omer, a Palestinian blogger from the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, whose avowed goal is to show the world “the Israeli crimes committed against humanity every single day.” Unfortunately, Omer does not stick to facts. He supports his allegations with overt falsehoods. A case in point is a recent article entitled “What I Saw in Jabaliya“, published in the New Statesman on March 10, 2008 (page 20).

The rest of their statement can be read HERE.

This Blog prides itself as one that speaks the truth on the situation in Palestine. Mohammed Omer has been a valuable tool in this endeavor as one that is literally living on the battle field. He has been the recipient of awards for fine journalism, among them being ‘The Best Youth Voice’, correspondent for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, published in Washington, D.C. He received that award for his series called “Gaza on the Ground“.

Mohammed will continue writing, myself and others will continue publishing what he writes. The truth will be known and the truth will set Palestine free one day…

Groups like ‘CAMERA’ can whine and lie all they want… like the title of the post says; THE CAMERA DOES NOT LIE ~~ BUT THE ZIONISTS DO…

MWC and Desert Peace (as well as The People's Voice, which also reprinted this "article") have an interesting definition of "lying." They are utterly unable to point to a single example of a lie, while CAMERA specifies and documents four very specific lies made by Mr. Omer and published in this British periodical as truth. In fact, apparently these Israel-bashign sites' dedication to "proof" is just to reprint the rantings of a blogger who apparently has no qualifications altogether and whose postings contains no facts to support his or her allegations.

What Jordan's Prince Hassan bin Talal thinks of Jews

There is a group of Arab intellectuals who work on the prestigious-sounding Arab Thought Forum. Their stated goals are on their website:

The Arab Thought Forum (ATF), known as Al Multaqa in Arabic, was established in Jerusalem in 1977 as an independent Palestinian organization. Based on democratic principles such as openness, transparency and freedom of expression it provides a forum for Palestinian decision makers, public opinion leaders and citizens to express their views and has no affiliation to any government, political party or other organization. The strength of ATF lies in its political impartiality allowing it to freely engage in a broad range of subjects related to the Palestinian cause of democracy building and ultimately independence.

The leader of the Forum is former Crown Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan.

In the context of the Forum, the Prince just wrote a description of Jews through history. According to the Palestine Today website, he describes Jews as "a mobile intelligence between human civilizations, without allegiance to any of them."

If the autotranslation is accurate, it appears that he considers Jews to be some sort of parasites, leeching off of their host countries while conributing nothing but using what they learn to conspire against the world. In short, a one-sentence synopsis of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

This is an interesting viewpoint, and one may want to mention to the esteemed prince that Judaism has had the concept of praying for the welfare of the government that Jews happen to be citizens of since the time of Jeremiah and more formally since the 14th century. Do Muslims have a similar prayer for their dhimmi- or infidel-led host countries?

One may also want to point out that Jews who have been a minority in every nation for millennia and who suffered discrimination in each of those nations still managed to work hard to gain respected positions in government and commerce, even in Arab countries. Is this the behavior of a traitor or a loyal citizen?

Then again, by perusing the pseudo-scholarly papers at the Arab Thought Forum site, it is not so shocking to contemplate that this is perhaps the pinnacle of Arab intellectual discourse. And others are less charitable in their evaluation of this organization.

The PA plans to take all Israel; Hamas wants the world

Two more must-see videos have been translated by MEMRI over the past couple of days.

In the first, Abbas Zaki, Palestinian Authority representative in Lebanon, spoke about the 1974 "phased plan" of the PLO (where Israel gets destroyed in phases) and asserted that it is still in place, and the importance of Jerusalem to that plan:

Abbas Zaki: We believe wholeheartedly that the Right of Return is guaranteed by our will, by our weapons, and by our faith.

Interviewer: Do you still believe in weapons, not just in negotiations?

Abbas Zaki: The use of weapons alone will not bring results, and the use of politics without weapons will not bring results. We act on the basis of our extensive experience. We analyze our situation carefully. We know what climate leads to victory and what climate leads to suicide. We talk politics, but our principles are clear. It was our pioneering leader, Yasser Arafat, who persevered with this revolution, when empires collapsed. Our armed struggle has been going on for 43 years, and the political struggle, on all levels, has been going on for 50 years. We harvest U.N. resolutions, and we shame the world so that it doesn't gang up on us, because the world is led by people who have given their brains a vacation – the American administration and the neocons.

[...]

Young Palestinian: As I recall, the invasion of 1982 and the destruction of South Lebanon was not just in response to missile attacks, but in response to operations as well. Israel does not use only the missiles as a pretext. It uses any activity of the resistance as a pretext.

Abbas Zaki: The important thing is that in any operation, Israel will pay a price. We don't want cases in which you don't kill even a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that makes Israel pay a heavy price.

[...]

The P.L.O. is the sole legitimate representative [of the Palestinian people], and it has not changed its platform even one iota. In light of the weakness of the Arab nation and the lack of values, and in light of the American control over the world, the P.L.O. proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine.

Let me make this clear: this is a Palestinian Authority representative, speaking on the record on Lebanese TV, saying that he is only interested in the destruction of Israel and driving out all the Jews, and "harvesting" UN resolutions to help them with this goal.

The idea of negotiating and granting concessions to such a party is foolhardy, at best, and suicidal at worst.

But these are the "moderates." What is the goal of the "hardliners"?

MEMRI gives us a broadcast from Hamas TV last Friday, showing a Hamas MP giving a "religious" sermon:

Yunis Al-Astal: Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion, so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security, and consolidation of power, and even to conquests thorough da'wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world. Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad. Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam – this capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe.
I believe that our children or our grandchildren will inherit our Jihad and our sacrifices, and Allah willing, the commanders of the conquest will come from among them. Today, we instill these good tidings in their souls, and by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets, his companions, and the great leaders, we prepare them for the mission of saving humanity from the hellfire on the brink of which they stand.

Clear enough for you? The difference between "moderates" and "extremists" is that the "moderates" only want to destroy Israel and all vestiges of Jews in the Middle East, while the "extremists" are aiming at the rest of the planet.

And too many denizens of that same planet think of sacrificing Israel as a kind of protection racket against their own battles with Islamic supremacists, not realizing that Israel is literally the front line of their defense.

Shas negotiating with Hamas?

Palestine Press Agency has published pictures purporting to show that Hamas and Shas have been holding secret meetings.

It shows two photos, the first of someone transliterated as Dr. Mark Oliver Turnn, apparently a British official, with Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

And then another photo of the same person with Shas leader and deputy PM Eli Yishai:

The two photos clearly were not taken at the same time ("Turnn" is wearing a tie in one and not the other) but the implication seems to be that he is mediating between Shas and Hamas, presumably negotiating the release of Gilad Shalit.

Yishai has already said that he would negotiate with Hamas or Hezbollah on the safe return of Israeli soldiers.

Work accident!

Ma'an reports:

Three Palestinians were killed and two others injured on Sunday in an explosion in Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

Sources in the Interior Ministry of the Hamas-led de facto government said the explosion was "internal," and not related to any fighting.

Ma'an learned that the explosion was at home of Hamas fighter Hasan Al-Mutawwaq who was assassinated by Israeli forces.

Firas Press identifies one of the victims as a 15-year old.

As Palestine Press Agency elaborates, "Typically, the militia elements of Hamas store weapons and explosives in densely populated Palestinian camps and neglect the lives of citizens and threaten their security."

This is the second "work accident" this weekend.

Our count of the number of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by each other this year is now at 61.

Jewish bodies dug up and discarded in Belarus

From AP: (h/t Global Freezing)

GOMEL, Belarus - Workers rebuilding a sports stadium on the site of an 18th century Jewish cemetery in Belarus say they have no choice but to consign the bones to city dumps.

"It's impossible to pack an entire cemetery into sacks," said worker Mikhail Gubets, adding that he stopped counting the skulls when the number went over 100.

But critics say it's part of a pattern of callous indifference toward Belarus' Jewish heritage that was prevalent when the country was a Soviet republic and hasn't changed.

The stadium in Gomel, Belarus' second largest city and a center of Jewish life until World War II, is one of four that were built on top of Jewish cemeteries around the country.

The Gomel cemetery was destroyed when the stadium was built in 1961, but the remains lay largely undisturbed until this spring when reconstruction began and a bulldozer turned up the first bones.

A Jewish leader in Gomel, Vladimir Gershanok, says he asked the builders to put the bones into sacks for reburial at a cemetery that has a monument to Holocaust victims.

"We know we can't stop the construction but we're trying to minimize the destruction," Gershanok said.

But city authorities have ruled that the construction can go ahead because the bones are more than 50 years old.

Igor Poluyan, the city official responsible for building sports facilities, says he doesn't understand the problem. "If something was scattered there, we'll collect it and take it away," he said.

A history professor, Yevgeny Malikov, sees the cemetery as part of the city's heritage. He has filled three sacks with bones and pulled aside two of the unearthed marble gravestones. Other gravestones are piled near a trash bin or already carried away. Some of the bones have been carried off by stray dogs.

"The history of the city is being thrown into the dump together with the human remains," Malikov said.

Jews began settling in Gomel in the 16th century and by the end of the 19th century made up more than half of the population. In 1903, they made history by being the first to resist a pogrom, defending 26 synagogues and prayer houses.

Most of Gomel's 40,000 Jews managed to flee before the Nazis arrived. The 4,000 who remained were shot in November 1941. Only a few thousand Jews now live in the city of 500,000.

Oleg Korzhuyev, 38, who lives on Karl Marx Street at the edge of the site, said the workers aren't happy about digging up human bones, "but if they find a gold tooth then it's a real celebration."

Another city, Grodno, experienced a similar problem while reconstructing a stadium built on a Jewish cemetery. The excavated earth and bones were scattered into a ravine.

Jewish graves also have been disturbed in neighboring Ukraine.

"It's not just a Jewish issue, it's this general Soviet legacy," said Ukraine's chief rabbi. Yakov Blaikh. "They didn't respect people while they were alive and they don't respect them when they are dead."

This month, the Jewish community in the city of Vinnyntsa was able to stop construction of an apartment building on a pre-World War II Jewish cemetery.

Ukrainian authorities apologized, saying they did not realize the construction would affect the cemetery. Belarus, on the other hand, has been "one of the least responsive countries on all Jewish issues," according to Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israeli Simon Wiesenthal Center.

"The government is simply erasing Jewish history from the face of this land," said Yakov Basin, vice president of the Belarusian Jewish Council.

Before the war, about 1 million Jews lived in Belarus and 800,000 of them died in the Holocaust. Today they number 27,000 in the country of 10 million.

Belarus' president, Alexander Lukashenko, has shown little respect for Jewish culture. In a radio broadcast in October that provoked a sharp protest from the Israeli government, he suggested that when Jews were numerous in another town, Bobruisk, they turned it into "a pigsty."

"You know how Jews treat the place where they live. Look at Israel; I was there," he said.