West Bank settlers set fire to mosque

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli settlers set fire to the Al-Kabir Mosque in the village of Yasouf, east of the town of Salfit, early on Thursday, local officials said.

The village’s mayor, Abdul Rahim Musleh, told Ma’an that settlers broke the main gate of mosque at 4am and set fire to the building’s second floor.

He said the fire destroyed copies of the Quran and carpets which were inside.

Settlers also wrote graffiti in Hebrew on the mosque’s floor reading, “We will have our revenge” and “We will burn you all,” the official added.

Residents of the village scrambled to put out the fire, he said. Palestinian Authority security forces also arrived and began an investigation.

The modern mosque stands in the center of the village home to 2,000 Palestinians.

Tension has been high in the West Bank since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a partial slowdown on expansion of settlements two weeks ago.

Angry settlers have vowed to resist the 10-month construction ban and also punish the Palestinian population in what they call a “price tag” campaign.

The head of the Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank, Yoav Mordechai, condemned the attack.

Mordechai told Ma'an that the attackers would be tracked down and prosecuted, adding that he had met with Salfit Governor Munir Al-Aboushi and leaders of the security services to discuss the incident....

more...

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=245954

[oberliner]

1. Palestinians throwing stones next to torched mosque in Yasuf

Young Palestinian men are throwing stones at soldiers near the mosque that was torched in the West Bank village of Yasuf. There are additional clashes in the area.

The Palestinians have pointed their fingers at neighboring settlers for torching the mosque and spraying graffiti on one of its walls, but settlers have claimed in response that the perpetrators are "bad apples." (Ali Waked)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3818515,00.html

[ProgressiveMuslim]

2. Is that your response to settler terror? nt

[oberliner]

3. "The attackers would be tracked down and prosecuted"

That's the response from Israel to this crime - and I certainly support that response.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. I'm interested in what yr response to settler terror is...

It's just that yr reaction to terror committed by Israeli settlers is a whole lot more subdued than when it comes to similar acts by Palestinians.

[Ken Burch]

15. So what?

It's always been silly to make a big deal about stone-throwing.

You defile somebody's house of worship, they're gonna get like that.

[Tarc]

4. Settlers are terrorists, and should be treated as such

[aranthus]

5. Correction. This was a terrorist act.

Not all settlers are terrorists. Only the perpetrators.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. I thought the same until I read yr recent post about Palestinian civilians...

Remember?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=295303&mesg_id=295664

[aranthus]

8. There's no contradiction in the two posts,

despite your facile attempt to create one. The contradiction would be if I stated in that other post that all Palestinians were soldiers because some engaged in war. Obviously, I didn't say that. The difference is that the terrorist attack on the mosque is (for now) not provably attributable to any kind of settler government. In fact, there is no separate settler government; they're Israeli citizens. Also, there's a difference between acts of war and acts of terrorism. Now let's say that all of the West Bank is given to the Palestinians for their state, and the settlers start something (stupid, but all too possible). If the Palestinians were successful in driving them out, the settlers would not have the right to return. Same principle as I'm applying to the Palestinians. Same principle as the world applied to the Germans.

[Violet_Crumble]

9. Of course there's a huge double standard...

You blamed the civilian refugees for starting a war. You didn't merely try to blur the distinction between civilians and those who were responsible (which was various govts), but tried to personally blame the Palestinian refugees for specific acts of violence prior to the war. So given that very ugly attempt to paint all Palestinian refugees as being responsible for the war, the same ugly logic would lead to a blanket call that settlers are terrorists. Not sure why you think the settlers Israeli nationality exempts them from being held to that same standard, unless you actually do believe that Israelis shouldn't be held to the same standards as Palestinians.....

If the Palestinians were successful in driving them out, the settlers would not have the right to return. Same principle as I'm applying to the Palestinians.

No, it's not the same at all. The settlers haved moved to occupied territory and that move was illegal under international law. There's no right of return for them. On the other hand, that doesn't apply to the Palestinian refugees...

[aranthus]

10. No there isn't. You're just misreading what I wrote.

I did not blame all Palestinians for the war, anymore than I would blame all Germans for starting World War II.

[Violet_Crumble]

11. You blamed all Palestinian refugees, so I'm not misreading......

If you meant to say something else other than that, then you should really clarify exactly what you meant...

[aranthus]

12. Oh, come off it.

You're not so lacking in intelligence that you couldn't know what I meant. I use standard English, and it's pretty clear from the context what I meant. If you need clarification, I've already provided it.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. Where did you provide clarification?

I don't think yr lacking in intelligence, empathy and compassion for yr fellow human beings that you meant what you posted (which is more than I can say for one or two 'supporters' of Israel in this forum). I'm pretty sure if you and I had the time and the energy to discuss the refugees and right of return that there wouldn't be too many points we'd differ on. What I do think is that in this totally volatile and polarised environmnet of the I/P forum, it's really helpful to ensure that we (and that applies to both of us as well as others) ensure that we steer well away from anything that can be construed as blanket statements about either Israeli or Palestinian populations and leave them to the troll contingent that's allowed to pollute DU. You do come across as a pretty decent and sincere sort of person who does have some compassion and does care about human rights, so I figure when you tell me you meant something else, you actually did mean something else, and it just wasn't all that greatly worded in the first place, that's all...

[Scurrilous]

13. West Bank Is Tense After Arson at Mosque

<snip>

"Passions ran high on Sunday in this Palestinian village in the northern West Bank two days after arsonists, presumed by Palestinians and many Israelis to be Jewish extremists, set fire to the central mosque.

A delegation of Jewish religious leaders and activists, including some from West Bank settlements, tried to reach the village to express their abhorrence of the attack. But the Israeli Army prevented the group from entering Yasuf for security reasons as enraged villagers proclaimed that the visitors would not be welcome.

“The people will not allow it,” said Wasfi Hassan, a local farmer. “It is like killing a man, then going to his funeral.”

An acrid odor hung in the air outside the mosque on Sunday. Inside, a pile of cinders marked the spot where holy books had apparently been emptied off library shelves and burned; words were still legible on some loose, singed pages of the Koran.

The walls were charred, and a black groove snaked across the carpet of the prayer hall to a back wall, following the arsonists’ gasoline trail. Hussam Abd al-Fattah, the muezzin at a small nearby mosque, said that worshipers spotted the fire on Friday as they returned from dawn prayers, and that neighbors rushed in to help extinguish the flames.

On the front stoop of the mosque, the vandals left graffiti in Hebrew that read, “Price tag — Greetings from Effi.”

more

[oberliner]

14. Rabbi pelted with rocks in West Bank

YASUF, West Bank, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A senior Jewish rabbi on a peace mission to an occupied West Bank village was pelted by rocks Monday, witnesses said.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger was in the village of Yasuf to hold talks with Palestinian leaders in the wake of an incident last week in which right-wing Jewish settlers, angry over a 10-month settlement freeze imposed by the Israeli government, burned an Arab mosque, Ynetnews.com reported.

The newspaper said the rabbi had entered the village under the protection of the Israeli Army and Palestinian police, but that on their way out, the contingent was pelted by rocks, and troops responded by firing two shots in the air and a tear gas grenade.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2009/12/14/Rabbi-pelted-with-rocks-in-West-Bank/UPI-24701260803188/