Joint List MK Sondos Saleh immediately used the arson attack to go after Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, who had called those protesting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vandals.“Minister Ohana – this is vandalism,” she stated.
Those who should receive criminal charges shouldn’t be those who protest against Netanyahu by blocking roads, but those who “vandalized and damaged” a mosque in Al-Bireh, she said.The Palestinians charged that Israeli settlers had perpetuated the attack with covert support of the government.The PLO Negotiations Affairs Department tweeted: “Supported by their government, Israeli settlers continue to attack Palestinians, their properties and places of worship, even during current trying times under #COVID19. At dawn today, they attacked/ set fire into ‘Al Bir Wal Ihsan’ Mosque in Al-Bireh city adjacent to Ramallah.” PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Saeb Erekat tweeted, “this is racism and apartheid.”The NGO Tag Meir linked the torching to other such acts of vandalism on either side of the Green Line.“The torching of the mosque in Al-Bireh joins a mosque in the Sharafat neighborhood of Jerusalem that was torched in January 2020 and the mosque in Jish in the Galilee that was desecrated in February 2020,” said the NGO, which deals with hate crimes and “price tag” attacks.“Since 2009, 60 mosques, churches and monasteries have been torched and desecrated,” Tag Meir added. “Jewish terrorists who, only a few days ago, attacked Border Police officers near Yitzhar continue to deal with destruction and devastation in the week in which the Jewish people mark Tisha Be’av.”