Jewish extremists on Wednesday tried to torch an old mosque in Jerusalem, as Israel reopened a controversial ramp leading to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, whose closure sparked Muslim anger. The overnight attack on the disused mosque in downtown west Jerusalem saw unknown attackers try and set the building alight and daub its exterior walls with racist anti-Arab slogans written in Hebrew.
It was the latest in a slew of so-called “price tag” incidents — revenge attacks by Jewish extremists which generally target Palestinians and Arabs, although they have also been directed at the army and leftwing Israelis.
The attack targeted the Nebi Akasha mosque, which dates back to the 13th century and had not been used as a place of worship since Israel’s creation in 1948. The city council currently uses the building as a storage facility. “During the night, there was an attempt to set fire to a disused mosque in the city centre,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, saying an investigation had been opened into the attack which took place just off Jaffa Street, west Jerusalem’s main shopping artery.
The attack was swiftly condemned by the Al Aqsa Foundation, an offshoot of Israel’s Islamic Movement, which said it held Israel “fully responsible for this terrible crime” and for not acting against the perpetrators. Arab Israeli MP Mohammed Barake also lashed out at his fellow parliamentarians for fanning the flames of racial hatred with a spate of draft legislation targeting Israel’s Arab minority. “Responsibility for the mosque burning does not only lie with the gang of fascists who carried it out, but also with some of the scumbags among the MPs and ministers,” he said in a statement.
“Those MPs should not pretend they are shocked when the draft laws they back become a raging fire that devours mosques,” he said. Opposition head Tzipi Livni called the arson “a hate crime” carried out by “a constantly growing group of extreme Israelis who are forcefully trying to turn Israel to a different state which — like them — is lawless.”
