Religious Extremism | The American Task Force on Palestine

Threats escalate against Israeli anti-settlement activists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
November 9, 2011 - 1:00am

REPORTING FROM JERUSALEM -- Peace Now, a group known for its vocal stand against Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, says a senior member of its team has received a death threat. It was the latest in a string of incidents blamed on Jewish extremists protesting the dismantling of illegal settlements in the West Bank. The targets of these so-called price-tag operations -- which typically involve vandalism in response to government actions against the settlements -- have been individuals, groups, mosques, cemeteries and recently even Israeli army facilities.

Saudi cleric offers cash for Israel soldier kidnap
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
October 26, 2011 - 12:00am

DUBAI, Oct 26 (Reuters) - A prominent Saudi cleric has offered to pay $100,000 to any Palestinian who kidnaps an Israeli soldier, according to his Facebook page. Awad al-Qarni said he had made the offer in response to a similar reward promised by an Israeli family for anyone who catches the person who killed one of its members in 1998, following the exchange this month of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for the captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

PA: Israeli inaction encourages settler violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) October 25, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority on Monday said the Israeli government was "implicitly encouraging settlers to continue on their rampage" by failing to hold them to account for violent crimes. "Israeli violations against Palestinians and their property and livelihood continue to increase with little or no action by the Israeli authorities to hold people to account under the rule of law," a government statement said.

UN rights chief urges Israel to 'protect Palestinian civilians' from settler attacks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Associated Press - October 11, 2011 - 12:00am

The United Nations human rights office urged Israel on Tuesday to stop Israeli extremists from attacking Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva that Israel has a legal obligation "to protect Palestinian civilians and property in the occupied Palestinian territory." Colville said that the wave of attacks occurring since September must be properly investigated and victims compensated, adding that they were "emblematic of the phenomenon of settler violence throughout the West Bank."

A burning house of God
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Edward Rettig, David Rosen - (Opinion) October 10, 2011 - 12:00am

A burned house of worship, in this case a mosque in the Israeli Arab town of Tuba Zangaria, and a desecrated Arab cemetery in Jaffa, were together an ominous opening to the New Year. To be sure, the responses from the local authorities on up to the prime minister and president Israel have been exemplary.

Israel must stamp out Jewish extremism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Newman - (Opinion) October 10, 2011 - 12:00am

In his Yom Kippur sermon at Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue, former Israel chief rabbi (and current chief rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa) Yisrael Meir Lau was very forthright in his condemnation of the recent “price tag” desecration of the mosque in Tuba Zanghariya. His comments were made before it became known that a Muslim cemetery in Jaffa, the area under his jurisdiction, had also been defaced, including such disgraceful graffiti on graves as “Death to Arabs.”

Palestinians demonstrating at destruction of mosque met with police tear gas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - (Analysis) October 5, 2011 - 12:00am

For the residents of this Palestinian village inside Israel, it was not enough that earlier this week their mosque was vandalised and burnt, probably by ultranationalist Jews from West Bank settlements. When they set out peacefully to protest against the desecration of the Noor Mosque, they were met with Israeli police hurling tear gas canisters and stun grenades. Israeli authorities said the demonstrators were making their way to the nearby Jewish community of Rosh Pina, an allegation they deny.

Story of Jewish terror
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Zohir Andreus - October 5, 2011 - 12:00am

It was the chronicles of a story foretold: The terrorism of radical Israeli elements against Arabs reached into the Green Line not too long ago, and it was a matter of time before it hit again. Here’s a reminder: In August 2005, four Arabs were murdered and dozens were wounded by Jewish terrorist Eden Natan Zada, the resident of Tapuach in the occupied West Bank. Early Monday, the al-Nur mosque in the Upper Galilee village of Tuba Zangaria was torched.

Senseless Jewish thugs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hagai Segal - (Opinion) October 4, 2011 - 12:00am

The residents of Tuba Zangaria who woke up Monday to find a burned down mosque can take comfort in one thing: The entire Jewish spectrum of opinion was horrified by this act. With the exception of the graffiti left on the mosque’s wall, we did not read or hear Monday even one justification in Hebrew to the arson in the north. Hence, it is quite clear that the fire at the mosque represents, more or less, the people who torched it with their own hands: A small, thuggish and childish group.

Jewish terrorism gaining steam
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Yaakov Katz - (Analysis) October 4, 2011 - 12:00am

The attack against the mosque in the Galilee on Sunday is a clear escalation – and if proven to have been carried out by right-wing extremists – it will be just the latest sign that Jewish terrorism is gaining steam. The target chosen raises serious questions about the motivations of the alleged perpetrators. While attacks on mosques in the West Bank have sadly become something of the norm in recent years, an attack on a mosque in an Israeli town is quite rare, particularly in a Beduin village like Tuba Zanghariya, whose residents serve in the IDF.

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