Israeli soldiers 'desecrated Quran'

An Arab member of Israeli parliament yesterday charged that Israeli soldiers desecrated the Quran while searching Palestinian security prisoners. An Israeli official denied the charge.

Ahmad Tibi, who represents an Arab political party, said he received complaints from prisoners at the Megiddo prison that soldiers tore and stepped on three copies of the Quran while searching Palestinians and their possessions yesterday morning.

"This is vulgar, primitive behaviour that cannot be allowed to happen," he said, calling for a special session of parliament to discuss the affair.

He said he also called Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra to complain, and prisoners would go on a hunger strike today to protest.

Israeli Prisons Authority spokesman Ofer Lefler said there was no such desecration.

He said 260 soldiers went into the prison to search for weapons, setting off unrest.

A soldier was inspecting an old copy of the Quran when three pages fell to the floor.

The soldier put the pages back in the holy book, Lefler said, and that was the extent of the incident.

Later, the Prisons Authority issued a statement saying that that whole incident was a "provocation"' by the prisoners, and the incident never happened.

The prisoners presented the book that was said to have been desecrated, and officials discovered that pages from another book had been inserted.

The extra pages were larger than the book, the statement said, and had not fallen out of a Quran.

The statement said the search revealed cellular telephones, knives and other forbidden articles.

Tibi has often been embroiled in controversies involving Israeli security forces.