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Assailants vandalize West Bank mosque

By NASSER SHTAYEH
,
AP
posted: 19 HOURS 9 MINUTES AGO
comments: 322
Text SizeAAA
YASUF, West Bank -Assailants vandalized a Palestinian mosque early Friday, burning prayer carpets and holy books, and leaving behind Hebrew graffiti indicating the rampage was the work of settlers angry over Israel's plans to curb settlement construction.
Israeli settlers have repeatedly attacked Palestinians and their property in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to scale back settlement building under U.S. pressure. They call the attacks the "price tag" policy.
The assailants entered the village of Yasuf in the northern West Bank before dawn Friday, according to Israeli police and Munir Abushi, the Palestinian governor of the district where the village is located.
They burned prayer carpets and a book stand with Muslim holy texts, and left graffiti on the floor reading, "Price tag — greetings from Effi." Effi is a Hebrew name.
The vandals escaped. The Israeli military said it views the incident "gravely" and is investigating along with the police. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement the incident was "an act of extremism designed to hurt any attempt by the government to make progress" toward renewing peace talks with the Palestinians.
After villagers discovered the damage, they briefly threw stones at Israeli forces that entered Yasuf, Abushi said. He said two villagers were hurt in the skirmish.
Abushi met with Israeli police and army officers and expressed his dismay over repeated settler attacks.
Israeli security forces have done little to protect Palestinian civilians from the settlers, he said, echoing a charge often made by Palestinians and Israeli and international rights groups.
In an apparent attempt to placate settlers over the construction slowdown, Netanyahu has proposed including tens of thousands of settlers, including many living in isolated settlements deep in the West Bank, in a government program that bestows monetary incentives on residents and businesses.
The move has drawn criticism from Netanyahu's coalition partner, the centrist Labor Party, which has indicated it will vote against the move at a Cabinet meeting next week.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
2009-12-11 06:10:59

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COMMENTS ( 322 )
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wrenemily71
10:27PM Dec 11 2009 
I hope I’m not being naive here or ‘hopeful’ for the Palestinans to not be slated for extinction at the hands of jews and their shabbos goys.
Maybe Israel/jews just hate them so much that they want them to suffer until the world finally lets them go ahead and kill them.
REPLY RATING
(1 RATINGS)
 
haviland7e
6:15PM Dec 11 2009 
You can bet your next unemployment check that Netanyahu is considering some sort of "Final Solution" to the Palestinian problem. The Israeli Army's Chief Rabbi, Brigadier General Rontzki, has already approved the wholesale slaughter of Palestinians, so what's not to like? Netanyahu may even get a town named after him, like Ariel Sharon, if he pulls the trigger.
REPLY RATING
(9 RATINGS)
 
INITO P
1:29PM Dec 11 2009 
GodLuvzUSA, forgive me for being blunt. I believe you are ignorant as to the history of the region and you have fallen victim to Arab propoganda. The "Palestinian people" have rejected peace at every turn. They define themselves in terms of their hatred of not only Israel, but of Jews in general. They have rejected ALL plans for partition including those that left them with much of what is now Israel proper to Ehud Barak's most recent and most generous offer which was rejected out of hand and answered with wave after wave of terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. They are being used as pawns by the Arab and Moslem world to eradicate Israel. Don't take my word for it, listen to what these people say in Arabic. Israel is about 10 miles wide ****** waist. Tell me if you would feel comfortable ceding land to a people whose charter calls for your destruction.
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(6 RATINGS)
 
GodLuvzUSA
12:38PM Dec 11 2009 
INITO P , I consider the Jewish people as our older brothers and sisters. You must understand that the world is changing , secularism against people of faith. Any desecration of any monument or holy place of any religion is hateful and wrong. What is happening to the Palestinian people is wrong regardless of your religous outlook. Not that I excuse what they do to the Israeli civilian people. Most Israelis disagree with the carnage caused on a daily basis by the settlers to the Palestinian people. Kadima head Tzipi Livni "PM Paying Settlers Hush Money" “Netanyahu pays hush money to hilltop youth at the expense of the periphery, settlement blocs and Israel's national interests.” This is not a doing of People of faith, rather a Zionist political desecration of moral law.
Yours In Christ,
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(2 RATINGS)
 
INITO P
8:00AM Dec 11 2009 
GodLuvzUSA , I suppose you're comfortable with the notion that all one must do to lay claim to an area is build on top of an existing structure. The Moslems did it with the Temple Mount, they built two mosques just to make a point. They have a tradition of razing churches and synagouges and contructing mosques in their place. While I do not defend what may have been the work of settlers in the story above, given the Moslems destruction of the tomb of Joseph (which nobody ever mentions) and the desecration of Jewish cemetaries and the razing of DOZENS of ancient and contemporary synagouges, I could understand their frustration. :)
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GodLuvzUSA
3:05PM Dec 10 2009 
Check your Zionist website's and you will see what I posted is accurate. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon left this morning to the Vatican to deny the Church of its ownership and tax everything else. Israel are denying visa to and forcing priest to leave Israel within one year. So ponder that, people. We should cut all 6 billion dollars to Israel and that would get their attention. Maybe then the settlers would move back to Miami or New York because they would not get a free home on Palestinian land!
REPLY RATING
(5 RATINGS)
 
Rollinlarge64
1:37PM Dec 10 2009 
People love to change history to fit into their own prejudices. The anti-Israeli coalition is out in force today, with a combined IQ of around 80. Rocktard (the name says it all) is their leader. Meb1357 is the one locked in the back room. Philistine sounds like Palestinian-rrrrrrright like Palestinian sounds like Pittsburg. Maybe the Pales should all move to Pennsylvania, but then they would go to war with the Amish. Then everyone would blame the Amish and how they attacked the peaceloving Pales because everyone knows how war like the Amish are.
I swear the Pales would try the patience of Christ, mother Teresa, and Gandi. They attack Israel even though it hurts them more than the Jews. How people blame Israel for this conflict is beyond me. I guess those who choose to re-wright history to fit their ideas have no problem re-writing the present for the same reason. Try picking up a real book on the history of the area, one that is not just anti-Semitic propaganda , and you may actually learn something. Nah, probably not. Prejudice is stronger than truth, is it not?
REPLY RATING
(8 RATINGS)
 
GodLuvzUSA
10:27AM Dec 10 2009 
–Israel to forge sovereignty over the ownership and claim a room in the compound of the Tomb of King David, in which the Catholic Church asserts the "Last Supper" occurred – Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon says he will assert Israel's right to all parts of the King David's Tomb compound if the issue is raised during upcoming meetings at the Vatican.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry notes that among the accomplishments achieved thus far are: an agreement regarding property and other taxes, an agreement regarding the clergy and payment of Social Security, an agreement about their status and ability to avail themselves of the court system, and the right of Israel to appropriate lands currently under the control of the Church. Israel will maintain its prerogative to requisition lands for the country's infrastructure needs, according to Israeli law and per the sovereignty of the state. Even thou not one country recognizes Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel and the world considers east Jerusalem as occupied land. Another word Israel will eradicates the Church from Jerusalem and all other religions. Why is the USA defending the Zionist and Settlers?
REPLY RATING
(8 RATINGS)
 
ZIR121527
10:23AM Dec 10 2009 
Before the end of WW I, England promised the Palestinian territory to the Jews as a reward for services during the war. This territory was governed by the Ottoman Empire. The land was mostly owned by absentee landlords, with tenent farmers and herders on land barely arable because of their lack of agricultural farming knowledge, or inclination. Much of the worst land was purchased by Jewish interests and improved to provide settlements, until a good percentage of the land titles were owned by the Jews. The British betrayed the original intent by creating Trans-Jordan, thus splitting about half the land from the original Mandate thus limiting the land available to the Jews for settlement and developement. Then the UN tried to halve the remainder again in the partition of 1948. Therefore Israel was actually given a quarter of the land that was originally promised to them. The lands of Judea and Israel are mostly in the present "West Bank", the coastal areas were lands of the Philistines.
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(8 RATINGS)
 
INITO P
9:27AM Dec 10 2009 
Meb1357 Wrote: Every International edict, bar NONE, has declared settlements illegal, and Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, illegal. Settlers terrorize the native population. They are the lowest of the low. It is long past time for the international community, particularly the US to enforce international law and put an end to the colonial monstrosity that is the settlers.>>>>>>>Initop Replies: You're wrong but that's no surprise. International law recreated the state of Israel. Israel accepted ALL plans for partition. The Arabs rejected ALL those plans. Arabs that invaded the region are not native to the region. :)
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(6 RATINGS)
 
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Assailants vandalized a Palestinian mosque early Friday, burning prayer carpets and holy books, and leaving behind Hebrew graffiti indicating the rampage was the work of settlers angry over Israel\'s plans to curb settlement construction.