Extremist Settlers Burn Entrance To Mosque Near Salfit – in pictures

Wednesday December 07, 2011 11:36 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies

On Wednesday at dawn, Israeli settlers set fire to the main entrance of the Broqeen Mosque, and a number of Palestinian cars parked nearby, at a village near the West Bank city of Salfit.

FIle – Mosque Burnt By Settlers Near Ramallah – Image summarynewspaper.com

Local sources reported that several armed Israeli settlers invaded the village and tried to burn down the mosque, but were only able to set its entrance ablaze. The settlers then burnt a number of parked cars within the vicinity.

The recent attack is part of a larger “Price Tag” campaign against the Palestinians, their holy sites, and their lands. The settlers blame the Palestinians for any evacuation of illegal settlement outposts in the occupied territories, and they even deface and vandalize homes and vehicles that belong to Israel’s Peace Now Movement, and its activists.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, November 8 and 9, extremist settlers killed one Palestinian, and set three Palestinian cars ablaze near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The settlers also fired tear gas at a family of Palestinians in Ertas village, near Bethlehem.

A ten-year old child was among those attacked, and he was transferred to a hospital in Beit Jala after being rendered unconscious by the gas.

Earlier in November, a number of Israeli settlers set fire to a tractor belonging to a Palestinian farmer, after trying to attack him in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

On Sunday, October 2nd, 2011, a group of extremists Israeli right-wingers burned a mosque at the entrance of Toba Zanghriyya village in the Galilee, and wrote “Price Tag” and “Revenge” on its walls.

On Monday, September 5th, 2011, a group of extremist Israeli settlers broke into a mosque in Qasra village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and torched it after destroying its property and writing anti-Arab slogans on its walls.

On Tuesday June 07, 2011, settlers burnt a mosque in Al Mughayyir village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and wrote racist graffiti on it walls.

On Sunday, October 25, 2010, extremist Israeli right-wingers attacked an ancient mosque in Ma’alul village near Nazareth, inside Israel. They removed the stones and spray-painted slogans of the Israeli settler movement on the walls.

On Sunday, October 3, 2010, a group of fundamentalist Israeli settlers broke into a mosque in Beit Fajjar, near Bethlehem, and set it ablaze.

On Tuesday, May 4, 2010, a group of fundamentalist settlers torched the main mosque of the Al Lubban Al Sharqiyya village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Source and more at the International Middle East Media Center.

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/extremist-settlers-burn-entrance-to-mosque-near-salfit-in-pictures/

Ultra-Orthodox paper condemns 'insane act' of mosque arson in northern Israel

• Published 00:53 06.10.11
• Latest update 00:53 06.10.11

'Jews don't burn mosques, period,' says newspaper's editorial, '...no shadow of justification can be found for harming a Muslim mosque.'

By Yair Ettinger

The ultra-Orthodox newspaper Yated Ne'eman Wednesday condemned the arsonists who torched the mosque in the village of Tuba-Zangariya and said the "din rodef" law applied to them, meaning it is permitted to kill them to prevent them from endangering others.

"Jews don't burn mosques, period," the newspaper's editorial said. "...no shadow of justification can be found for harming a Muslim mosque. This is an insane, dangerous act."

	The burned-out mosque in Tuba-Zangaria, Upper Galilee.
	Photo by: Gil Eliyahu

The mosque was torched earlier this week, apparently by Jewish extremists. Its interior was seriously damaged, and many holy books were destroyed by the blaze.

Yated Ne'eman blasted Jewish rightists who said the mosque was probably set on fire by Arabs, as a provocation against Jews.

"The identity of the mosque-burners in the Galilee is not known yet...But one cannot help but fear this is no provocation intended to incite against right wingers, but rather that the act was committed by wacky, radical rightists who have already specialized in [similar activities.]"

The editorial slammed MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union ), who refused to denounce the arson. "A number of rightist extremists, including one Knesset Member, tried to put the blame for burning the mosque on Israel's government, the army and the defense establishment, which is 'forcing' the settlers to unleash their anger on Muslim mosques," the paper said.

The article was written at the direct order of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox leader Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv, his personal assistant Haim Cohen said yesterday.

Cohen said whoever sets fire to a mosque is "a terrorist and a murderer with blood on his hands."

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/ultra-orthodox-paper-condemns-insane-act-of-mosque-arson-in-northern-israel-1.388415