Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on November 12, 2014

A Palestinian from the West Bank village of Mghayr shows a burnt Koran at the village mosque followiong a fire blamed by locals on Israel settlers. Photograph: Aref Safadi/EPA

Palestinians inspect the damage at a mosque of the West Bank village of Mghayr following an overnight attack blamed by locals on Israel settlers. Photograph: Atef Safadi/Epa

A Palestinian mosque and an Israeli synagogue were damaged in separate arson attacks, police and local residents said today.

No casualties were reported but the attacks are likely to further stoke tensions that have flared over a contested Jerusalem shrine.

Youths entered Mghayr village in the occupied West Bank and set a fire which consumed the ground floor of the mosque before residents put it out, according to local mayor Faraj Naasan.

There has been repeated vandalism of cars and buildings in Mghayr and the villages second mosque was partially torched two years ago, Mr Naasan said, blaming Israelis from nearby Jewish settlements.

Israeli ultra-nationalists say such so-called price tag attacks are reprisals for Palestinian violence or for any attempt by Israeli governments to curb settlement growth.

The vandalism has at times also targeted Christian sites and Israeli military facilities.

The Israeli police said it had sent a forensic team and a special nationalist-crime unit - set up last year to counter price tag incidents - to Mghayr, but that angry villagers had prevented them from entering the area.

Separately, police said, unknown assailants threw a petrol bomb overnight at an ancient synagogue in Shfaram, a predominantly Muslim and Christian Arab town in northern Israel. There was small-scale damage and police were investigating.

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Mosque and synagogue damaged as Jerusalem tensions flare

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