Muslims Desecrate Shuls in Lod, Ramle

Israeli Arab mobs attacked Jewish targets in the city of Lod and Ramle on Monday night, in an apparent show of solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

As part of the attacks, the rioters pillaged shuls and desecrated the sifrei Torah.

The rioters also rampaged in the streets, leaving behind significant damage and destruction.

While they were nearing the Jewish neighborhood in Lod, an Israeli who feared for his life fired at the Arab rioters and killed one of them. The police, who were not on site during the time of the riot despite numerous calls by residents, arrived in the morning to arrest the man.

The World Organization of Synagogues expressed “deep shock” at the severe damage to shuls in the cities of Lod and Ramle by Arab rioters and “condemns and strongly protests the severe damage to the holy places of Israel.”

“The harsh images of desecrated and burned synagogues must shock every citizen of every religion. Synagogues are the beating heart of Judaism, and in the State of Israel their status is no less than symbols of government. The Israel Police is called upon to act with all its might for this task of guarding the synagogues, and enforcing the law with the rioters.”

Mayor of Lod Yair Revivo said Tuesday that it was a “sad morning for all of us in Lod, 70 years of coexistence were trampled on by Arabs in a series of pogroms, vandalism, damage to symbols of government, shattering windshields and throwing Molotov cocktails at the new town hall we entered just last week, enormous damage to the mosaic museum, burning batei knesset, a Talmud Torah, dozens of vehicles, burning garbage containers, destroying Israeli flags and, worse, lowering the Israeli flag and hoisting the Palestinian flag, on a night of riots that injured policemen and residents who found themselves besieged.

“While it is not at all clear where this came from at all, there was nothing that justified such severe acts of hatred,” he said.

He put out an order to repair all the damage, to “convey a clear message to the extremist rioters, that we would not allow them to disrupt our lives.”