Settlers torch mosque in West Bank village

RAMALLAH: Israeli settlers torched a mosque in a Palestinian village in the West Bank on Monday, scrawling “revenge” on a wall in Hebrew and charring copies of the Muslim holy book in a blaze that threatened to stoke new tensions over deadlocked Mideast peacemaking.

Fifteen Qurans and the mosque’s carpet were burned, said Ali Thawabti, a municipal council official in the village of Beit Fajjar.
He said residents put out the fire and “settlers got into their white Peugeot and sped away”.
It was the fourth time since December that a mosque in the occupied West Bank had been vandalized in attacks Palestinians blamed on settlers.
The Israeli military, which has been in control of the West Bank since 1967, said it was investigating the attack in Beit Fajjar, near Bethlehem.
An increase in violence could complicate U.S.-led efforts to prevent the collapse of peace efforts which Washington hopes will resolve all major issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within a year.
The peace drive was plunged into crisis last week when a 10-month Israeli moratorium on housing starts in West Bank settlements expired and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resisted U.S. and international pressure to extend it.
The Palestinian leadership said on Saturday the negotiations, which began on Sept. 2, could not resume until Israel halted settlement construction completely.
“We are in the midst of sensitive diplomatic contacts with the United States to find a solution that will allow the talks to continue,” Netanyahu told reporters at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Monday.
“I advise everybody to be patient, responsible, cool-headed and, above all, quiet,” he said in public remarks, aimed at his ministers.

Increasing tension

Commenting on the mosque fire, Mohammad Hussein, the Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem, said settlers aimed to increase tension and “push matters to the edge of the precipice”.
Lt. Col. Avital Liebowitz, an Israeli military spokeswoman, described the blaze as “a very serious incident which we view with utmost gravity”. She said Israeli authorities “intend to find those responsible as quickly as possible”.
The settlers number about half a million in the West Bank and areas of Jerusalem captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.
Organizations that monitor human rights in the West Bank say attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property tend to increase when there is a perceived risk to the settlements.
Last May, Palestinians accused settlers of setting fire to a mosque in the West Bank village of Libban al-Sharqia. Israel said the blaze was probably caused by a spark during building work.
In April, settlers were accused of spraying graffiti on the walls of a mosque in Hawara and, in December, carpets and Qurans were burned in Yasuf. No charges were brought in the incidents.

Fierce opposition

Netanyahu made no public comment on media reports, confirmed by a senior Israeli official, that Washington had offered Israel incentives to extend the partial freeze by 60 days.
However attempts by Washington to entice Israel into extending a settlement moratorium looks set to meet fierce opposition from coalition hardliners, a newspaper poll of cabinet ministers showed on Monday.
Renewing the ban on building new settler homes in the occupied West Bank appears to be key to salvaging peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, who say they will walk out if construction continues.
Findings from the poll published in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper indicate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face an uphill battle to convince his coalition to back a reported U.S. deal offering security and other guarantees in exchange for a 60-day extension of the settlement curbs.
Of the 30 ministers who make up the cabinet, 15 are opposed to any renewal of the partial freeze, the newspaper poll said.
Another eight said they would back such a move, with the remaining seven undecided, the poll found, meaning that even if Netanyahu managed to sway those sitting on the fence he would still need to turn one of his 15 opponents.
“I personally object, obviously, to continuing the freeze,” Environment Minister Gilad Erdan told reporters. “An additional freeze is in essence giving up in advance on communities in which we believe that Jews have a right to settle.”
The Yediot Aharanot survey showed that eight of the 15 members of the powerful security cabinet were against any move to halt West Bank construction, with four in favor and three undecided.
And among members of the Forum of Seven key ministers, four were against and only three in favor.

Source: Agencies