Mosque Arson In Israel Condemned By Authorities

Mosque Torched in Upper Galilee

Tension escalated in Israel on early Monday as an Arab mosque was torched in the northern part of the country, in the village of Tuba-Zangariyye, in Upper Galilee, causing protests and clashes with the police.

About 200 Arab citizens of Israel marched to a major intersection nearby with the intention of blocking the road in protest. The set tires on fire and threw stones at the police, who dispersed them with tear gas without causing any injury.

Police officers were reported to have met with the leaders of the village in order to defuse the tension, and prevent any further disturbances. There were no other protests in the village.

According to the Israeli police, a carpet was burnt inside a mosque and the walls were damaged after the interior went ablaze. Copies of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, were also burnt, while the graffiti on walls suggested that Jewish radicals may have been involved.

The police said that on the walls there were the words “price tag,” referring to a practice of attacking the Palestinians in retaliation for the Palestinian attacks and Israeli government’s actions against settlements.

A few weeks ago, the government was forced to destroy some unauthorized structures in an unauthorized Jewish outpost in the West Bank, and that action was immediately followed by an attack on a mosque, which was also burnt.

According to the army radio, the name of a Jewish settler and that of his child, killed in a car crash last week in Hebron, were written on the mosque’s wall. The man is supposed to have crashed after a rock, thrown by Palestinian protestors,  hit him in the head while driving, which caused him to lose control over the vehicle.

Prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu denounced the attack on the mosque, and demanded Shin Beth, the internal security, to find out who did it. Reports from PM’s office say that he was “fuming” upon seeing the pictures of the incident, and that he had declared that such acts go against the values of the state of Israel.

Usually this “price tag” kind of operations are being carried out in the West Bank, being rather rare on the territory of Israel. Still, this village is near Safed, where a rabbi has urged the Israelis last year not to rent or sell homes to Arabs.

The president of the country, Shimon Peres, said that the arson of the mosque is shameful to the state of Israel, and that such an action has no place in the life of the Israelis. He noted that this action happened during the Ten Days of Atonement, which is a time for reflection.

Price Tag

This incident comes at a time when the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected to arrive in Tel Aviv on Monday to reaffirm the commitment of the United States to Israel at a time when the Jewish state is becoming more isolated, as he had warned on Sunday.

Panetta is said to attempt to improve the chilly ties of Israel with Egypt and Turkey. During his visit he is expected to meet with the Palestinian and Egyptian leaders, which whom he will discuss the situation in the region.

The profound changes that happened in the Middle East this year have put Israel in the situation of seeing formal allies switching sides, as they try to reposition on the region’s political map.

Turkey, former close ally of Israel, has become one of the most vocal critics of Israeli politics especially toward the Palestinians. A few days ago, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu lashed out at the Israeli plan to build new settlements around the city of Jerusalem, saying that this shows that the Palestinian bid for statehood by the UN Security Council was motivated and grounded in the lack of serious intention on the Israeli part to have successful negotiations with the Palestinians.

Egypt on the other hand, whose former regime led by Hosni Mubarak was a reliable one for Israel, is expected to have a more radical orientation against Israel, especially since the Turkish Prime Minister launched a daring political axis with Ankara and Cairo as main ends. This is expected to bring stability and prosperity in the Muslim world after the collapse of the totalitarian regimes.

Against this new background, Panetta is to reassure the Israeli partners that the United States will protect Israel, and will provide it with the security it needs to launch in successful peace talks with the Palestinians.