Mosque spray painted with slogans including "price tag" and "Yitzhar," the illegal outpost where IDF razed 2 buildings.
By JPOST.COM STAFFprice tag, Yitzhar, Bani Naeem_311(photo credit: Betzalel)Vandals sprayed graffiti Monday on a mosque at the West Bank Palestinian town of Bani Na'im, including comments insulting Muhammad.Slogans were spray-painted in Hebrew on the mosque walls. Vandals wrote "price-tag" and "Yitzhar," a Jewish outpost in the West Bank where the IDF razed two structures last week.RELATED:W. Bank: 3rd of IDF used against 'price-tag' attacks Jerusalem mosque torched, defaced PA: Mosque attack is declaration of war Police have joined the IDF investigation into the vandalism. The graffiti was sprayed on the exterior walls of the mosque, according to Israel Radio. There was no damage to the actual building.
According to Bani Na'im Mayor Redwan Munasra, the attack is first of its kind in the Palestinian village of just over 20,000 people. Redwan also said that the incident, in which "insulting comments about Muhammad" were written, was particularly damaging.He said that it was clear that youths from Mitzpe Yitzhar were responsible for the damage, according to Palestinian news agency Safa.He also noted that the incident occurred the same night the village celebrated the return of four Palestinian prisoners freed in the second phase of the prisoner-swap deal Israel brokered with Hamas to free Gilad Schalit.The attack on the mosque occurred after five vehicles owned by Palestinians were torched Sunday overnight in the village of Bitin, northeast of Ramallah.Security forces were investigating that incident.
The acts of vandalism are the latest in a chain of such attacks against Arab propoerty over the destruction of settlement property in the Judea and Samaria.Last Thursday, the IDF razed two buildings in the illegally built outpost Mitzpe Yithar. Hours later, a mosque in the Palestinian village of Burka was torched.The graffiti underlines growing tensions among settlers in the West Bank over government mandated demolitions of buildings constructed illegally on private Palestinian land.Settler activists have expressed anger at the government for expelling Jews from land many of them feel they obtained and developed legally.
