Jerusalem: Israeli settlers on Wednesday torched a mosque in the western part of Jerusalem to terrorize the Palestinian community, residents say.
The settlers moved to set the mosque ablaze and scrawled anti-Arab graffiti on the walls of the building, AFP reported.
An attack on a Muslim site in Jerusalem — the contested holy city at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — raises the stakes further.
The words “price tag” were spray-painted at the mosque — a reference to Jewish extremists’ practice of exacting retribution for government action against settlements. Anti-Muslim graffiti such as “Mohammed is dead” and “A good Arab is a dead Arab” was also scrawled at the scene.
Other acts of vandalism were reported in two Palestinian cities in the West Bank, where the military reported that cars were set afire and hate graffiti was scrawled.
Israeli politicians have taken tough stances against Jewish radicalism, particularly after protesters broke into an Israeli military base in the West Bank on Tuesday, damaging vehicles, setting fires and slightly injuring a senior commander.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “take care of these attackers with a firm hand” and Defense Minister Ehud Barak decried the “homegrown terror,” while acknowledging that Israeli military intelligence doesn’t gather intelligence about Jewish groups in the West Bank.
