JERUSALEM – Defying a crackdown on Jewish extremists ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vandals set fire to a mosque in the West Bank on Thursday and defaced it with Hebrew graffiti after Israeli forces tore down structures in an unauthorized settlement outpost.
The arson attack in the Palestinian village of Burqa, near Ramallah, was the latest in a string of similar attacks on mosques in the West Bank. It came a day after an unused mosque was vandalized in a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The wave of extremist violence, which included a rampage by militant settlers at a West Bank army base on Tuesday, has brought expressions of alarm from across the Israeli political spectrum and prompted a government announcement Wednesday of a series of measures to rein in violent Jewish radicals.
The steps include detention without trial and prosecution in military courts, measures normally applied to Palestinians in the West Bank but not to Jewish settlers there.
Other measures include banning suspected militants from the West Bank and authorizing soldiers in the West Bank to arrest Israelis.
In Burqa, residents arriving for dawn prayers saw smoke rising from the mosque, where the carpet and chairs were burned. Hebrew graffiti scrawled on the walls said: “War” and “Mitzpeh Yitzhar,” the name of the outpost where structures had been demolished hoursThe Washington Post
No comments:
Post a Comment