RAMALLAH: Jewish occupiers set fire to a mosque in the West Bank village of Yasouf on Thursday night. The occupiers also spray-painted in Hebrew: “We will burn all of you.�
Burned pages of the Qur’an lay scattered on the mosque’s damaged carpet. The word “price tag� was scrawled on the walls. Occupiers use the term to denote a policy under which they target Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements.
The area is home to some of the most hard-line occupiers.
After Friday prayers, Palestinian villagers protested the sacrilege and clashed with Israeli forces and occupiers. The soldiers responded with live fire and tear gas. Two Palestinians were lightly injured.
Abdulrahim Muslih, the head of Salfit municipal council, told Arab News that the occupiers from the nearby settlements torched the second floor of the mosque in the center of the village. The fire consumed the mosque library that contained copies of the Qur’an. Israeli security sources told Army Radio that the door to the mosque was damaged and a carpet burned. In a separate development, the British government issued an advisory on Thursday that allows retailers to distinguish whether West Bank goods are produced by Palestinians or Jewish occupiers.
Such goods cannot be labeled “produce of Israel� because the area is not within the internationally recognized boundaries of the state, the government said.
The distinction is important to some British consumers who are critical of Israeli’s settlement policy and prefer not to purchase goods from the Jewish settlements.
The British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which issued the new guidelines on Thursday, said it had received requests from retailers, consumer groups and nongovernmental organizations “for greater clarity� on food labeling.
— With input from agencies