Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Extremist Jews Try To Torch Israel Mosque

Israeli police are investigating the torching of the entrance to a mosque in northern Israel and the spraying of anti-Arab slogans on its walls.

A security camera at the Abu Bakr al Sadik Mosque in Um al-Fahmm filmed three unidentified men wearing masks writing “Arabs out” in Hebrew with a spray paint canister on an external wall and setting fire to part of the entrance on Thursday night before fleeing the scene, the news site Ynet reported.

On Friday morning, hundreds of Arab residents arrived at the mosque to inspect the damage, which locals believe was a “price tag” attack, the term Jewish ultranationalists use for reprisal and intimidation attacks against Arabs and Israeli security forces for actions that are seen as targeting Jews in West Bank settlements or elsewhere in Israel.

An unnamed senior police source told Ynet that the suspected perpetrators arrived at the scene driving a Suzuki Baleno Wagon, and that Israel has about 50 automobiles of that model.

“I believe we will find the people responsible, we have to make progress on this and bring good results or it will end up hurting us,” the police officer said.

Jamal Zahalka, a Knesset lawmaker for the Arab-Israeli Balad party, told Ynet that had residents caught the perpetrators, “they would not have made it out of here alive.”

Jamil Makhajna, the local imam, told Ynet he believed the perpetrators were “seeking to harm relations between the peoples.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.