Vandals Hit Mosque in Palestinian Village

Three Palestinian cars were set on fire and graffiti was scrawled on a mosque in Shomron on Thursday, in the latest incident in a rising trend of attacks, residents said.

The phrase “Zion’s redemption,” a Star of David and the name of an Israeli soldier who was killed last month in the region were spray-painted on the wall of the local mosque-cum-primary school in the village of Burqa.

David Ha’ivri, a local activist, did not dispute the villagers’ account that the vandals were Jews from the area, but told Reuters that the Jewish leadership “frowns on acts of violence and speaks out against such acts.”

“We can’t have full control over every individual in our community, just like anywhere else in the world,” he said. “We expect the police and security forces to have a special interest in seeing that this type of violence does not expand and that the people behind it are dealt with.”

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the attack is being investigated as a “criminal act with nationalistic motives.”

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the October 11th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.