'Price tag' attack against mosque in Palestinian village

IDF assumes vandalism in Burka, violence against Jalud are retribution for the demolition of the Ge’olat Zion outpost.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Fire near West Bank village of Jalud 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Rabbis for Human Rights)
Fire near West Bank village of Jalud 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Rabbis for Human Rights)
Extreme right wing activists vandalized three cars and the exterior wall of a mosque in the Palestinian West Bank village of Burka outside of Ramallah early Thursday morning.
The IDF is working on the assumption that the vandals executed a “price tag” attack of retribution for its evacuation of the Geulat Zion outpost on Wednesday morning as well as the Palestinian murder of IDF soldier Tomer Hazan last month. “Geulat Zion loves Tomer Hazan” was written on the mosque’s exterior wall.
According to Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli nongovernmental group B’Tselem, her organization has recorded 12 attacks by right wing extremists against Burka since 2007. She added that police have not caught any of the assailants in these incidents.
The vandalism against the mosque marks the second price-tag attack in the West Bank in 24 hours. Security forces on Wednesday arrested four Israelis for attacking the Palestinian village of Jalud – vandalizing an elementary school and lightly injuring a soldier – and another two during the demolition of the Geulat Zion outpost, near the West Bank settlement of Shiloh.
Four of those arrested on Wednesday were minors and two were adults. The adults were released on Thursday night and the minors will be released on Friday morning, according to nonprofit organization Honainu, which defended them in court.
The organization claimed that those arrested were innocent, and said that those from the security forces who ran after them had their guns drawn and were not in uniform. It noted that the youngest of the arrestees was only 14.