Jewish Settlers Suspected of Defacing West Bank Mosque

By JTA December 11, 2009

Vandals sacked a West Bank mosque and left graffiti on its walls.

The vandals raided the mosque before dawn on Friday, burning furniture, prayer rugs and holy texts and defacing the mosque’s walls, Ha’aretz reported.

One graffiti read “Price tag – greetings from Effi.” Effi is a Hebrew name and “price tag” refers to the strategy extremist settlers have adopted to exact a “price” in attacks on Palestinians in retribution for settlement freezes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government recently announced the launch of a 10-month settlement freeze with an eye toward accommodating the Obama administration’s attempts to revive peace talks.

Ehud Barak, the defense minister, slammed the attack. “This is an extremist act geared toward harming the government’s efforts to advance the political process for the sake of Israel’s future,” Ha’aretz quoted him as saying.

The Israeli army is investigating the incident.

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