Illegal Israeli Settlers Torch Mosque, Including Copies of the Holy Quran, in Beit Fajjar, Near Bethlehem

Monday October 04, 2010 08:16 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

A group of illegal Israeli settlers broke, on Sunday at night, into a mosque in Beit Fajjar, near Bethlehem, and set it ablaze.

The illegal Israeli settlers burnt twelve copies of the Holy Quran before setting the mosque’s carpets and grounds ablaze.

Local residents noticed the assailants and clashed with them before the Israeli army arrived at the scene and evacuated the setters; no arrests were reported.

The mosque was badly burnt and the settlers also wrote graffiti on its inner walls.
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks carried out by the settlers against mosques in the occupied West Bank.

Earlier in May this year, 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.

Earlier in January, the Israeli police detained sixteen yeshiva students and three adult settlers from the illegal West Bank settlement of Yitzhar on suspicion of involvement in torching a mosque in Yasouf Palestinian village, near the central West Bank city of Salfit; the mosque was burnt in December 2009.

On Thursday, September 30, extremists settlers called for the demolition of a mosque in the West Bank village of Burin, near Nablus.

They wrote slogans on the walls of the mosque demanding the Israeli army to level it.

Illegal Israeli Settlers burn mosque in Bethlehem

[ 04/10/2010 - 11:06 AM ]

BETHLEHEM, (PIC)--

Illegal Israeli settlers at dawn Monday set fire to a mosque in Beit Fajjar town, south of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The fire damaged large parts of the mosque.

Locals said that several settlers ransacked the mosque over night and set fire to carpets and 12 copies of the holy Quran before residents arrived at the scene and engaged in a fistfight with the assailants. Israeli troops arrived at the scene to protect the settlers.

They added that the settlers wrote on the mosque's internal walls offensive remarks against Islam and Muslims.

The settlers waged different attacks recently. Last April, a group of extremist settlers desecrated a mosque in Hawara village and painted anti-Islam remarks and drawings on its walls.

In December last year, they burnt a mosque in Yasouf village and in January this year they sabotaged a Muslim graveyard. The Hamas Movement, for its part, strongly denounced the attack and described it as part of Israel's racist and aggressive policies against Islam, Muslims, and their holy sites and an attempt to undermine the Palestinian people's determination and steadfastness.

PA investigating mosque arson

Published today (updated) 04/10/2010 12:24

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) --

Palestinian Authority police have launched an investigation into a fire in a mosque caused by illegal Israeli settlers overnight in a Bethlehem town, the district's chief prosecutor said Monday.

Alaa Al-Tamimi arrived at the scene of the suspected arson attack against the Al-Anbiya Mosque in the Beit Fajjar town and said investigations would be launched into it "and all settler assaults against Palestinians are being documented as requested by Attorney Muhammad Al-Mughanni."

Locals told Ma'an on Monday that several illegal Israeli settlers ransacked the mosque overnight and set fire to carpets inside. Muhammad Taqatqa, who lives next to the mosque, said he saw a white car with Israel license plates leaving the town after the mosque was set on fire, heading west toward the Etzion crossroads.

Taqatqa said 15 versions of the Quran were burned in the incident and that stones surrounding pillars inside the mosque collapsed. Anti-Palestinian slogans were further written across the mosque's walls, he said.

Residents said they hurried to extinguish the fire until Palestinian firefighters and police arrived at the scene, adding that locals clashed with assailants following the arson, prompting Israeli forces to deploy in the town to contain the fight.

PA official: Arson part of campaign against everything Palestinian

Director of PA Ministry of Religious Endowment in Bethlehem Muhammad Ayish denounced the attack, describing it as part of a "campaign against everything Palestinian."

"Israel responds to peace by arson, judaisation, settlement construction and land confiscation. This arson reminds us of the arson against Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969."

Israeli settlement of Migdal Oz is a kilometer away from the mosque and there have been several skirmishes between settlers and residents of Beit Fajjar in the past.

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