On old mosque on in Jerusalem was burned and covered with anti-Arab
graffiti early on Wednesday morning in the latest price tag attack by
right-wing extremists angry at government policies. The mosque, on
Strauss Street near downtown Jerusalem, is no longer in use.
Overnight,
extremists broke into the mosque and tried to set it on fire. The
mosque was badly burned by not structurally damaged. The walls were
covered with graffiti, including “A good Arab is a dead Arab,” “price
tag,” “Muhammad is dead” and “Muhammad is a pig.”
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extremists also wrote “Mitzpe Yitzahar,” referring to an illegal West
Bank outpost that could be demolished along with parts of Ramat Gilad in
the coming days.
Officials were quick to condemn the attack. Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat
visited the mosque early on Wednesday morning. “We have zero tolerance
for any type of violence,” he said.
Three fire crews responded to
the early morning blaze, and encountered a fire raging in one of the
western rooms of the mosque. The fire was quickly put out, but caused
significant smoke damage, and some of the walls were blackened. Fire
investigators said that material gathered from the site of the fire
points to arson. Police and the Shin Bet opened a joint investigation.
Opposition
leader Tzipi Livni (Kadima) called the incident "a hate crime,"
explaining that it is part of the same wave of violence that led
activists to
throw rocks at IDF officers on Tuesday.
"This
isn't a small group. It’s a group of Israeli extremists that is
constantly growing and trying to forcefully turn Israel into a different
state – a state in their extreme, nationalist and violent image,
without laws and courts," she said.
According to Livni, the so-called "price tag" violence is an attempt to force an extreme right-wing ideology on the majority.
Livni called for "the Zionist majority to take back the state, and prove that some lines can't be crossed."
She
also said the government must arrest all of those involved in this
week's incidents and punish them harshly and continue evacuating illegal
outposts in order to show that the law in Israel is enforced.
In addition to the incident at the mosque, two Palestinian vehicles were
set on fire in the West Bank early on Wednesday. A car was set on fire
in Kfar Yasuf near Hebron and an additional vehicle was set ablaze in
Kfar Hars near Kalkilya. Graffiti was sprayed on the vehicles in both
instances, the IDF stated. Security services were investigating the
events.
In another attack overnight, a truck was set alight in Kfar Duma. The perpetrators also attempted to torch a Palestinian-owned taxi, and sprayed graffiti in the area saying "Mitzpe Yitzhar- mutual responsibility."
The suspected arson came after right wing extremists in
the Samaria area of the West Bank attacked a military base, two IDF
commanders and Palestinian vehicles late Monday night and early Tuesday
morning to protest the pending demolition of the unauthorized Ramat
Gilad outpost.
As a result of Monday’s and Tuesday’s “price-tag”
actions in the Jordan Valley and against the IDF, the government will
significantly beef up intelligence efforts among right-wing extremists
and increase the number of people to be barred from the West Bank.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
convened an urgent meeting
of top IDF, police, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and justice
officials after the attack Tuesday morning on an IDF base in Samaria, to
develop a plan to deal with these types of actions.
Netanyahu
spoke forcefully against the events, at a Jerusalem speech to a National
Defense College alumni event Tuesday evening – the third time during
the day that he went on record about the occurrences, and an obvious
effort to signal the gravity with which he viewed them.
“We need to stop bad things when they are small, and this is small and
we will stop it now,” he said.
“Nobody has any justification or excuse for not obeying the law.”
Lahav Harkov, Jpost.com staff, Herb Keinon, Tovah Lazaroff, Ben Hartman and Yaakov Katz contributed to this report