TIMES ONLINE: Suspected extremist Jewish settlers today attacked a mosque in the northern West Bank, burning holy books and spraying threatening graffiti in Hebrew on the building, Palestinian officials and Israeli police said.
Extremists broke into the mosque in the village of Yasuf, near the city of Nablus, and burned Korans and copies of the Hadith, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, and prayer carpets, while spraying slogans on the floor reading “Price tag – greetings from Effi.”
A pile of ash on a scorched carpet was all that remained of around 100 holy books, The Times found.
The so-called 'price tag' is the hardline Jewish settlers’ policy of attacking Palestinians and their property in retribution for any Israeli government curb on settlement expansion. Effi is a Jewish name.
Hardliners are furious that the right-wing government of Binyamin Netanyahu has given in to US pressure to try and enforce a temporary freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, where some 300,000 settlers live. It is feared that the attack may be the beginning of an intensified campaign against the government by the settlers.
While the attackers escaped, the Israeli government was quick to condemn the attack. "This is an extremist act geared toward harming the government's efforts to advance the political process for the sake of Israel's future," said Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, whose department is overseeing the freeze.
When they discovered the desecration of their mosque, Palestinian villagers started throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, whom they often accuse of complicity with settlers when they carry out such attacks on them and their olive orchards. Two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were hurt in the clashes.
There have been rising tensions since Mr Netanyahu announced the proposed freeze last month, in an effort to meet US and Palestinian demands for a total halt on settlement construction, deemed illegal by the international community but often backed by the Israeli state. >>> James Hider in Yasuf | Friday, December 11, 2009
