Friday, December 11, 2009

If, If, If This Is True

UPDATED: Arabs marching on Kfar Tapuach. More below.
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In red, just right-of-center in the map below you can spot Yassuf:



If this is true:

Radical settlers vandalized and set fire to a mosque in a Palestinian village in the West Bank, Palestinian officials claimed Friday. Defense officials confirmed that assailants had vandalized the mosque, and the Civil Administration has launched an investigation.

The attack took place in the village of Yasuf, south of Nablus. According to reports, the perpetrators set fire to a carpet and to a library in the mosque's second floor, destroying holy books. They also sprayed abusive statements on the walls. Graffiti messages included "Prepare for the price tag" and "We will burn all of you."


Why "if"?

Well, you'd have to be fairly stupid to go into an Arab village on a Friday when the mosque is most active from the previous evening on.

Secondly, using the phrase "price tag" means nothing in the Arab context but everything in the Jewish one. If it had been sprayed on a police station or Army base, well, that is a different story.

Third, burning Arabs is really looney. Maybe if what had been sprayed had been "we will burn your fields like you burn ours", I could admit maybe there is a problem.

I've put pout contact feelers to see what is the story.

Yes, there have been reported attacks previously. And the village is near Kfar Tapuach, a stronghold of a few Kahanists.

In any case, justice should be done whatever the exact details.

As I have written previously, in our campaign against Israel government policy, there is no place for any "side shows".

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UPDATE

The Shomron Regional Council rejected on Friday morning reports that Jews were responsible for a fire at a mosque in Kafr Yasuf, south of Shechem. The council noted that some books and a carpet were burned and not the mosque itself, adding that on the surface, the vandalism described by the Israel Defense Forces' Spokesperson's Office was that of a mentally-ill person or a provocation.

An this AP report asserts that this
graffiti was left on the floor "Price tag — greetings from Effi." Effi is a Hebrew name.

Who'd be stupid enough to leave a name?


A statement by the council called on the police to investigate well, given the number of times Arabs have burned the Tomb of Yosef, which they turned into a mosque. The council added that its position against harming the holy places of other religions is well known.

The council stressed that the IDF's announcement said the mosque was vandalized by unknown individuals and various media took it upon themselves to blame area Jewish residents, and called on media to be responsible and stick to the facts and not to personal opinions.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Of course, this has received the usual media attention both here in Israel & overseas, reported as factual with the appropriate quotes from Israeli officials & the usual collection of Arab inciters.
Now, I don't know if the report is accurate or who perpetrated the fire, obviously, I can't know for sure. The slant given by the media is of course to demonize ALL settlers & paint a picture of rampant lawlessness as if the entire settler population is a bunch of outlaws.
But, in my politically incorrect opinion, a mosque is not exactly a House of Worship in the same way a church or synagogue would be. In addition to prayers, mosques are propaganda centres, used to store arms, bomb-making factories, conduits for financing terrorist activities. Muslims themselves have no qualms about bombing mosques & have often used mosques as firing positions.