Israeli Settlers burn Palestinian mosque south of Nablus

Israeli Settlers burn Palestinian mosque south of Nablus A mosque in the West Bank village of Qusra, south of Nablus, was set on fire Monday morning, hours after Israeli police officers destroyed three illegal structures in the settlement of Migron. According to Palestinian sources, a group of settlers arrived in Qusra at approximately 3am, throwing burning tires at the mosque and breaking several of its windows. This event is the latest in a series of clashes between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank.
According to the Palestinian news agency Ma’an, settlers also threw rocks at Palestinian vehicles near the settlement of Yitzhar, breaking several windows.
The Palestinian Minister of Religious Affairs, Mahmoud Habash, condemned the attack, telling Arabs Today that “it is not the first of its kind to be carried out by settlers against mosques in the West Bank.”
Ghasan Doughlas, the Palestinian official responsible for settlements in the northern West Bank urged the Middle East Quartet to intervene.
The Migron buildings aroused much controversy over recent months. The Supreme Court ordered the three buildings, which were built earlier this year, to be destroyed, following a petition issued by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group. The Israeli government initially said it would comply with the court ruling by mid-July, although later postponed the demolition to an unspecified date during September.
Approximately 200 settlers had assembled in Migron on Monday morning to protest the demolition, with six youths subsequently arrested. Police officers began emptying the buildings of their contents at 1am, although were temporarily halted by a Supreme Court injunction which and granted a 12-hour delay. However, this respite was short-lived; just hours later, the Supreme Court issued a new order overriding the previous injunction and sanctioning the demolition.
Danny Dayan, the chairman of the settler advocacy group, the Yesha Council of West Bank settlements, laid blame for the demolition solely with the Israeli government. “The decision to demolish the houses was made by the government not the court, thus the responsibility for this futile action lay with the government. It is still not too late for the Prime Minister to reverse the decision.”