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Tuesday  07/06/2011,  09:59

Settlers set fire to mosque near Ramallah

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- A Ramallah-area mosque was torched overnight and its remains gratified with racist anti-Arab slogans; witnesses said Israeli settlers were seen setting the fire at 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Al-Maghayir's village council said the building was nearly destroyed, and its contents incinerated, drawing condemnation of the third mosque torching in three years.

Eyewitnesses told Ma’an that a group of Israeli settlers arrived in the village before dawn, and shortly after they saw flames rising into the sky.

Ghassan Daghlas, a PA official in charge of following up with settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said a number of settlers brought dozens of used tires to the mosque and set fire to them.

A concerned President Mahmoud Abbas asked governor of Ramallah Laila Ghannam at first light to give directives immediately to refurbish the religious institution.

The National Christian Coalition in the Holy land condemned the arson, with President Dimitri Diliani blaming Israel's occupation and unquestioning protection of militarized settlers, saying the "occupation commits limitless crimes using different means including extremist settlers who are protected by Israeli forces. They do not show any respect to morals, religions, or laws when it comes to attacks against the Palestinian people."

Al-Maghayir, east of Ramallah, is the third village to have their mosque torched by settlers in the last three years.

In the northern West Bank village of Yasuf, settlers torched and gratified the Al-Kabir Mosque in December 2009, writing “We will have our revenge” and “We will burn you all,” on the carpets of the building.

In May 2010, settlers entered the mosque of the Nablus-area village of Al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiya, gathered flammables, and set them alight in the early hours of the morning.

Head of the local council of Al-Lubban Jamal Daraghma said residents living adjacent to the mosque heard cars approaching the building at 3 a.m. Residents said the group tore curtains from the walls and threw several copies of the Qur'an into a pile on the mosque floor and set it aflame.

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