Settlers Vandalize Mosque, Attempt To Burn Vehicles

Settlers vandalized a mosque in a Salfit village on Wednesday and attempted to set fire to several vehicles,
a Palestinian Authority official said.

PA settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas told Ma’an that residents in the village of Deir Istiya had seen settlers fleeing the scene after throwing flammable material on three vehicles.

Settlers had also written ‘price tag’ slogans on a mosque in the village, Doughlas said. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that vandals painted “price tag” and “Gal Arye Yosef” overnight on a wall of the mosque in the village, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

Gal Arye Yosef is the name of an outpost that Israeli forces recently demolished.

The term “price tag” is used by Jewish settlers to describe a policy to attack Palestinians and their property in retaliation for perceived anti-settler actions by the Israeli government.

Two Palestinian-owned vehicles were torched in East Jerusalem last week. “Price tag” and “revenge” were sprayed near the burnt out vehicles in Sharafat, a Palestinian village near Gilo settlement.

In December, Jewish extremists torched a mosque in Jerusalem and sprayed the Star of David, “price tag,” “Muhammad is a pig” and “A good Arab is a dead Arab” in Hebrew on the ancient building’s walls.

Since Israel captured the West Bank, home to about 2.6 million Palestinians, around half a million Jews have settled in the territory. They include 200,000 who live around Jerusalem on land Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally.

Israeli NGO Peace Now said in a recent report that settlement construction during 2011 had increased by 20 percent.