Racists sprayed anti-Arab graffiti and tried to set on fire the door of a mosque in Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, in Israel, overnight Thursday. The phrase “Arabs out” was sprayed on the wall of the Araq al-Shabab mosque, and the arson attempt caused damage to the property.
Jews and Arabs march during a solidarity event through the Arab city of Umm El Fahem on April 2009. Second from right: MK Afo Agbarieh (Hadash), a leading Communist Party member and Um el-Fahm resident. The event was held in response to the fascist right wing march that was held in Umm el Fahm, causing demonstrations between the residence of the city, which tired to block the march, and the Israeli police (Photo: Activestills)
The vandals were caught on film by private cameras in the area. The footage shows two people setting something alight and then driving away in a white vehicle. Umm al-Fahm residents discovered the vandalism when they arrived at the mosque for Friday morning prayers and alerted police. The mosque’s imam, Jamil Mahaj’na, said that the video footage of the vandals indicates the incident took place at around 3:00 A.M. “This is a nasty and vile act, and doing harm to holy places crosses all red lines.” Police are investigating the incident, which is the fourth of its kind in northern Israel this month, according to Al Ittihad daily newspaper. Police suspect the incident is a ‘price tag’ attack. This term was originally used to refer to criminal acts against Palestinians by settlers in the occupied West Bank. Today, however, it is often used in Israel to refer to any anti-Arab act of racism.
MK Afo Agbarieh (Hadash), an Um el-Fahm resident said on Friday, “This is a fascist escalation and a crossing of red lines, and the police and security services must treat these incidents and racists as terror incidents.”
Earlier this month, some 40 cars had their tires slashed and anti-Arab graffiti was sprayed on walls in an Arab town in the northern Israeli town of Jish, near Safed, known in Hebrew as Gush Halav. “Only goys [non-Jews] will be driven out of our land” was among the graffiti sprayed by the vandals. A week earlier, Jewish racists sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on the walls of a convent west of Jerusalem and damaged vehicles parked nearby. Slogans including “Mary is a cow” and “price tag” were sprayed in Hebrew on the walls of the Roman Catholic sanctuary. Furthermore, in early January, vandals also sprayed graffiti reading “Death to Arabs,” “No to Coexistence,” and “Arabs = Murderers” on a building in Jaffa. In the same month, a group of settlers set fire to the facade of a mosque in the Palestinian Salfit village of Deir Istiya and sprayed racist slogans on its walls. The perpetrators of violence against Arab-Palestinian communities are rarely prosecuted. There are hundreds of racist attacks against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank every year.
Related:
Protest in Abu Ghosh in wake of ‘price tag’ racist acts
800 ‘Price Tag’ racist attacks carried out in the last two years
