Israeli lawmakers clashed over allegations that Israeli prison guards defaced Palestinian prisoners’ Korans. Abdel-Malik Dehamsheh of the United Arab List took the Knesset podium Wednesday to demand a full probe of the case by the Internal Security Ministry, which dismissed the complaints lodged last week as baseless. “With this kind of issue, we can’t play around,” Dehamsheh said, alluding to worldwide Muslim ire sparked by reports that U.S. interrogators vandalized the Koran at a military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Interior Minister Gideon Ezra rejected Dehamsheh’s call, saying that pages reported missing from several Korans kept at Megiddo Prison in northern Israel had been torn out by the prisoners themselves.
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