As worshipers arrived around 4:30 AM Wednesday to prepare for the dawn prayer at al-Huda mosque, in the West Bank village of al-Jabaa, six miles west of Bethlehem, they saw smoke and flames rising from inside the mosque, Ma’an reported.
The worshipers alerted neighbors and together they joined forces until they managed to put out the fire.
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On a nearby wall, the perpetrators had sprayed the word nekama-revenge and other slogans in Hebrew, as well as a Star of David, with witnesses saying it was the work of Jewish extremists.
An examination of the images, shot by Ma’ariv, reveals a questionable use of Hebrew in those slogans, as well as the handwriting, which is typical in cases when the act of hooliganism was performed by locals.
There have been two instances over the past two years, where an electric fire in a Muslim mosque or graffiti on the walls of an Arab monastery were blamed on Jewish extremists.
Police is investigating the angle of a nationalistic hate crime, but the fact that said investigation is ongoing hasn’t stop Arab MK Masud Ghnaim from declaring:
“This is racist terrorism work done by settlers who deserve every condemnation, this crime is nourished by the racist anti-Arab atmosphere the Israeli right has created, as each party and each government that support the occupation and the settlements are partners in these crimes, which they called ‘price tag.’ The extremist Netanyahu government supports and encourages the occupation and the hatred against Arabs, and it must be replaced.”
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, CEO of the Reform movement, added his voice to the Arab MK’s, saying: “When Baruch Marzel, Kahane’s successor, is on his way to the Knesset, there is nothing surprising in yet another morning with a ‘price tag, ‘ and more burning of a mosque. We call on the Prime Minister and the leaders of the other parties to inform the public that they will not form a coalition with the party in which Kahanists are members.”
Should police investigation show that this was not the work of Jewish extremists, or any Jews at all, the two speakers will, of course, go public with a correction.
