Arsonists burned down a mosque early on Monday morning in the Bedouin village of Tuba-Zangarriye in the Galilee region in northern Israel, in an unprecedented “price-tag” attack inside Israel's Green Line. Several arrests have been made, but police have not yet released details of the suspects'.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres each condemned the attack as an affront to Jewish and Israeli values, and Netanyahu ordered an immediate investigation.
“The prime minister was furious when he saw the pictures, and said that the incident contradicts the values of the state of Israel, such as freedom of religion and freedom of worship,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said. The statement said Netanyahu had said, “The pictures are horrifying and have no place in Israel.”
President Shimon Peres called the mosque attack an immoral and illegal act that contradicted Jewish values and was shameful to the state of Israel.
“This is a difficult day for the entire Israeli society, not only the Arab sector,” Peres said. “This is a time for reflection, in which we should condemn such acts among us. Acts such as this sabotage the relationship between us and our neighbors and between the different religions living in Israel ... I am convinced that police and security forces will apprehend the criminals and bring them to justice, but it is up to all of us to uphold the law and stand against those who break it.”
Previously, such “price-tag” attacks, allegedly carried out by extremist elements in the settler population, have been aimed at mosques inside the Palestinian territories. Only last month, an Israel Defense Forces base in Judea and Samaria was vandalized, reportedly by an extremist right-winger angry at the government's removal of three structures in the illegal Migron outpost. Monday's arson and vandalism attack set off an angry response by the village's residents, many of whom marched to the nearby Rosh Pina junction, where they were stopped by heavily armed police.
Residents of Tuba-Zangarriye woke up Monday morning to see the central mosque in their village ablaze. Unidentified arsonists reportedly crept into the village at night and started the fire with gasoline. Police raised their alert level to Level 3, one level before the highest alert, in fear of reprisal attacks and civil disorder resulting from the vandalism.
Investigators inspected the burned mosque and found “Price tag Palmer” and “Revenge” scrawled on the walls, immediately ruling out any claims of accident and leading investigators to deduce it was a targeted attack. Palmer is the surname of the father and son killed near Hebron last week when stones thrown at their car led the driver to careen off the road and crash.
The Israel Police Northern District commander arrived on the scene of Monday's attack for an assessment. Police initially tried to prevent residents from entering the structure, but residents circumvented the road blocks and cried as they entered the charred structure.
One of the mosque owners, Ahmad Ali Zangriyye, told Army Radio, “At 1:45 a.m., one of the village residents smelled a fire and began checking if it was in his own house. He then saw smoke coming from the mosque and immediately called police and his fellow residents, but everything was already engulfed in flames.” Police and residents found traces of gasoline at the scene. Many Qurans (the Muslim holy book) were burned, he said.
Zangriyye voiced his disappointment with the price-tag vandals’ decision to target his village. “The village is a quiet village that has always maintained good relations with the Jewish residents in the area ... In our history we never had any incidents between our residents and the Jewish residents ... We want to preserve those relations,” he said. Tuba-Zangarriye is a Bedouin village of some 6,000 residents, many of whom serve in the IDF and perform national service.
About 200 residents of the village of Tuba-Zangria, Arab citizens of Israel, marched to a major intersection nearby with the intention of blocking the road in protest, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Some of the demonstrators set tires on fire and threw stones at police officers, who dispersed the crowd with tear gas, he said. No one was injured.
Police were mobilized in the area to prevent further disturbances and were meeting with village leaders in an effort to defuse tensions, he added. No unrest was reported inside the village.
Rosenfeld said a carpet was burned inside the mosque and interior walls were damaged. Rosenfeld said the words “price tag” were spray painted on the building.
“Price tag” is a term coined by extremist elements within the settler population in Judea and Samaria for acts of vandalism, intimidation and violence against Palestinians and their property as a reaction to the government's removal of outposts, roadblocks, and other perceived anti-settler actions. “Price-tag” actions also come in reaction to Palestinian acts of violence. The “price-tag” attacks were originally aimed at Palestinian villages, where mosques were vandalized in a similar fashion. In recent months the vandals have grown bolder and branched out in an unprecedented vandalism of an IDF base in September. A 27-year-old Petach Tikva native was arrested two weeks ago on suspicion of being responsible for the attacks and is currently being tried.
In a call to Israel Security Agency chief Yoram Cohen, Netanyahu instructed him to work vigilantly to apprehend those responsible for the attacks. Netanyahu was reportedly furious when he saw the pictures of the burned mosque, his office said. “The mosque arson goes against Israel's very values, of which freedom of religion and freedom of worship are at their core,” Netanyahu said.
Opposition leader MK Tzipi Livni (Kadima) said the price-tag attack should be harshly condemned. Israel's leadership must harness values that denounce mosque burning, beyond merely dealing with recognition abroad, according to Livni.
President Shimon Peres and Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metgzer were set to visit the burned mosque late Monday afternoon to voice their condemnation of the attack. Muslim, Christian, Bahai and Druze representatives were to join Peres on his visit.
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) refused to condemn the act, but said he did not support the burning of holy books, although the perpetrators were those who were being pushed into a corner by the public. “Our homes are being destroyed while thousands of Arab houses are left standing, without any involvement by the justice system headed by Justice Dorit Beinish,” he said. “Feeling persecuted and discriminated against leads to desperate and unbecoming acts.”
MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am Ta'al) denounced the arson as the act of a “Jewish terrorist organization, not a price-tag attack,” and said the organization garnered support from incitement by a racist rabbi in Safed. Tibi called for restraint and for rebuilding the mosque as quickly as possible.
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beitenu) called harming holy places a criminal and abhorrent act that could not be ignored.
Religious Services Minister Yakov Margi (Shas) joined in vehemently condemning the acts and called on the police to bring the “rioters” to justice.
A signed letter by more than 20 rabbis in northern Israel was released, denouncing price-tag attacks and calling them “out of line with the Torah, the Halachah, and its values.”
