Illegal Israeli Jewish Settler Terrorists Burn a Mosque in the West Bank

PIC, [ 08/06/2011 - 09:06 PM ]

From Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

Suspected Jewish terrorists on Tuesday, 7 June, 2011, torched a mosque in central West Bank, police sources and eyewitnesses said.

Initial investigation showed that Jewish settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Bait Ayen committed the sacrilegious act by rolling burning tires into the medium size mosque.

Israeli sources said the arson was meant to protest the demolition by the Israeli army last week of a settler shack in the area.

The Israeli government condemned the terrorist act, calling it criminal

The settlers call such attacks on Palestinians and their property an "a price tag policy."

However, it is widely believed that the Israeli security authorities, probably under instructions from pro-settlers government, don't usually act decisively to apprehend and punish perpetrators.

This is the fifth mosque in the West Bank that has been torched by settlers in the past two years. Not a single perpetrator has been arrested, probably due to the perceived lenient approach taken by the government and army toward the settlers.

One of the leaders of the settlers named Itamar Ben Gvir sought to justify the arson, saying settler anger had consequences.

Palestinian officials accused the settlers and their backers in the Israeli government and army of trying to carry out a protracted kristalnacht against Palestinians.

Kristalnacht or night of broken glass occurred in Nazi Germany in November 1938 when Hitler Youth vandalized Jewish property including synagogues, inflicting extensive damage.

"Unfortunately, despicable acts like this raise no eyebrows among Jews in Israel. And even when they do, the reactions are usually insincere and hypocritical, given the overwhelming support settlers enjoy in Israel."

Mahmoud al Habbash, the Palestinian Authority's minister of Wakf and Islamic Affairs, accused the settlers of "defiling the name of God"

"These people claim to be religious people but look what they are doing. He called on honest people all over the world to expose and isolate these genocidal and fanatical extremists who are hell bent on igniting the flames of religious wars in the region."

"A few weeks ago, they sought to burn a church in Jerusalem, and now they have burned a mosque. This shows that these people who carry a virulent venomous ideology must be evicted."

Another condemnation came from Sheikh Muhammed Hussein, a Friday imam at the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem who also serves as the PA Mufti. He pointed out that settler attacks on mosques and churches were becoming a policy.

He accused the Israeli government and security authorities of dealing leniently with Jewish terrorism.

"I can say that the extremely lenient reaction by the Israeli government to Jewish terror only further encourages this terror."

Most of Jewish settlers in the West Bank are affiliated with an extremist Jewish messianic group called Gush Emunim (block of faithful." They are indoctrinated in a nearly genocidal ideology which advocates expulsion, enslavement or extermination for non-Jews living in Palestine-Israel.

This ideology, which used to have a marginal presence in Israel, has become quite prevalent among Israeli Jews, prompting some observers and intellectuals to compare the situation in Israel with Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s.

One disgruntled Israeli cabinet minister remarked a few months ago that "we have already become a fascist state."

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