City officials in Nazareth this morning destroyed the underground level of a mosque that had begun to be built on a controversial plot of downtown land. When the mission was completed, and as the 500 policemen protecting it were preparing to leave, a sign was put up reading, "State of Israel: City Plaza Under Construction."
Seven Moslems were detained in the ensuing scuffle, and one policeman was lightly hurt. Nazareth is a large Israeli-Arab city in the lower Galilee, adjacent to Upper Nazareth, which is mostly Jewish.
This morning's action hopefully ends a six-year controversy between local Christians and Moslems, which embroiled the State of Israel as well. The Moslems began illegally building the mosque on land that they claimed was the gravesite of the nephew of Salah a-Din, over the protests of Christians. The latter maintained that the Basilica of the Annunciation Church, a holy Christian site, would be overshadowed and threatened by the new large mosque.
Previous Israeli governments had agreed to a compromise wherein the mosque would be only 700 square meters, and not 1,000, but the current government overturned that decision. No permit was ever granted for the construction of the mosque. In addition, the Nazareth District Court ruled last week that the land is owned by the Israel Lands Authority, that it is not holy, and that the Moslems who built upon it did so illegally.