At the Kusra mosque, "Mohammed is a pig" was spray-painted on the wall. (Photo by Michele Monni)
September 7, 2011
KUSRA—One of the four mosques of Kusra, a village of about 6,000 in the south of Nablus, was vandalized in the early hours of Monday morning, allegedly by members of the nearby Israeli settlement of Esh Kodesh. Graffiti was scrawled on the outside wall, windows were broken and there was also an attempt of arson. According to Abdel-Azim Awda, one of the members of the village council, at around 3:00AM, some residents of the settlement of Esh Kodesh broke the glass of the rear window of the building, stormed inside and set fire to a pile of car tires. The exterior walls of the mosque were desecrated with injurious phrases in Hebrew.
Officials of the Palestinian Authority arrived at the village in the morning and reassured the villagers that the expenses related to damage would be covered.
"For us it is not enough. Since January this year at least 16 members of the village have been injured as a result of attacks by settlers. Just last month—during Ramadan—the settlers burned more than 1,400 olive trees and killed more than 20 sheep from the village", Abdel-Azim told The Palestine Monitor.
Clashes between the village of Kusra and Esh Kodesh’s settlers started 4 years ago, when around 25 settlers established themselves in the north of the village. "There aren’t families living in settlement, only a group of young settlers, mostly men, whose only goal is to drive us out of our land," said Abdel Azim.
"Since January this year at least 16 members of the village have been injured as a result of attacks by settlers," village council member Abdel-Azim says. (Photo by Michele Monni) South of the village of Kusra there is another settlement, Migdalim Darom, which was founded in 1984. "We have never had any problems with the settlers of Magadalim, we have been coexisting for almost 30 years and there has never been any fight, we live in peace," Abdel Azim said.
A dozen Israeli soldiers went to the village in the late morning in order to reassure the population of Kusra against future violence. "We have reported every episode of violence to the [Israeli army] during the last 4 years, without getting any kind of justice or fair compensation."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night condemned the mosque arson in Kusra.
According to Netanyahu "the attack was an act of extremism that aims to compromise the relationship between different religions in Israel."
Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouthi expressed his concern defining the event as "a very dangerous development" and warned of a conspiracy between the Israeli government and Jewish settlers to attack Palestinians ahead of the upcoming bid for UN membership. |
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου