RARE PEACE OFFERING FROM RABBIS TO PALESTINIANS

Inspecting the damage done.

I admit I read this first article with thoughts that were quite unsettling. After all these settlers do not do much but goad Palestinians and here they were burning Korans, a definite red flag waved under the nose of an angry bull.  Although, to be honest, I question why the poisoning of a Palestinian's family water supply or the theft of their trees, animals or what not does not get equal billing!

However then I found Part Two of this post. I will not say my faith in the settlers is resolute and strong in the belief that they will welcome the Palestinians and become best friends, but this action by the Rabbis is certainly to be noticed and commended. Am I naive? So far most rabbis from the settlements have been mad with hatred, but perhaps there are those who are just not listened to? Whatever the case may be, since the Israelis are not a people to apologize or atone for their evil deeds, these men have gone against the grain of their people and are to be commended for their actions.

Every little bit matters and this will not be forgotten by the Palestinians, no matter how outraged they were at the desecration of their holy book.

However well meaning these Rabbis were, however accepting and apparently forgiving the Palestinians are, why do I have a nagging feeling deep down inside that everyone is playing a scripted role? It was triggered by the comment by Ehud Barak that this was a terrorist action, a highly unlikely comment from him towards other Jews.

PART ONE

Oct 4, 10:52 AM

By Douglas Hamilton

BEIT FAJJAR, 

West Bank (Reuters) 

Jewish settlers opposed to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians were accused of setting fire to a mosque in the West Bank on Monday, burning the Koran and scrawling threats in Hebrew on its walls.

"Mosques, we burn," said a warning scribbled at the door of the smoke-smudged mosque of Beit Fajjar south of Bethlehem on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed for cool heads to avert the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks.

The green-carpeted floor of the mosque was burned to a black crust in a dozen places where it was doused with kerosene and set alight at around three in the morning. A dozen copies of the Koran were scorched by the fire.

Palestinians said settlers were behind the attack.

"The settlers' message is: terrorize the Palestinian people," said Mohammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who came to inspect the damage and talk to the locals.

"Crimes like these do not terrorize the Palestinian people. On the contrary, such attacks will only embolden the Palestinian people and increase our determination to achieve all of our rights," he told Reuters after delivering a brief sermon.

Violence could complicate U.S.-led efforts to prevent the collapse of Middle East peace talks launched just a month ago. They were plunged into crisis last week when a 10-month Israeli moratorium on building new houses in West Bank Jewish settlements expired.

 Damage recently inflicted upon another mosque, Al Lubban ash Sharqiya

PRICE TAG

Beit Fajjar is a dusty, jumbled village of stone-cutting mills on a dead-end road outside the sprawling Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion, which is closed to Palestinians.

A Star of David symbol and the words "Price Tag" were found scrawled over the mosque's doorway. Militant settlers coined the slogan to warn of the cost of any threat to their presence.

It was the fourth such attack since December and "a very serious incident which we view with utmost gravity," said Israeli military spokeswoman Lieut. Colonel Avital Liebowitz.

Investigators from the Israeli police and the army, which has controlled the occupied West Bank since 1967, collected forensic evidence at the scene including footprints and a slice of the burned carpet, and took statements from witnesses.

On Saturday, the Palestinian leadership said the peace talks relaunched on September 2 but now in suspension could not resume until Israel halted settlement construction completely.

Netanyahu said on Monday there were "sensitive diplomatic contacts" with the United States to try to save the talks.

"I advise everybody to be patient, responsible, cool-headed and, above all, quiet," he said in remarks aimed at ministers in his right-wing coalition which is dominated by pro-settler parties, including his own Likud.

I love how Netanyahu is the largest cog in the process as he counsels a cool head to deal with situations of his creation that already go against international law!

Young Palestinians smoking on the wide porch of the house of Abou Mohammad opposite the mosque scoffed at the idea of a peace deal creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

"The peace talks are doomed from the start. There is no point in talking with the Jews, they are determined to build settlements," said Abou Mohammad.

(Additional reporting by Mustafa Abu Ganeya and Joseph Nasr in Beit Fajjar, Ali Sawafta, Mohammed Assadi and Tom Perry in Ramallah, Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Writing by Douglas Hamilton and Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Rabbi Menahem Froman

PART TWO

BEIT FAJJAR, 

Palestinian Territories (AFP) 

Six settler rabbis on Tuesday delivered a box of Korans to a West Bank mosque which had been torched by vandals, in an unusual peace gesture welcomed by Palestinians.

The delegation was led by Rabbi Menahem Froman, a founder of Eretz Shalom (Land of Peace), a small group of West Bank settlers who have reached out to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to pursue peaceful coexistence.

They brought around a dozen copies of the Muslim holy book on a solidarity visit to the mosque in Beit Fajjar near Bethlehem the day after unidentified vandals spray-painted Hebrew insults on its walls and set it alight.

Witnesses said the pre-dawn attack was carried out by men who appeared to be Jewish settlers and who were driving a car with Israeli license plates. The Israeli military and police said they were investigating.

Several hundred Palestinians cheered as the rabbis arrived in two armoured Land Rovers accompanied by Israeli soldiers.

They were met by the mosque's imam and Bethlehem governor Abdul Fatah Hamayel, who gave them a tour of the damaged mosque and showed them the remains of several Korans which were burnt in the blaze.

"We welcome the Jews to Beit Fajjar so they can see with their own eyes the crime that was committed in this mosque, which was against humanity and against religion," Hamayel told reporters.

"We welcome this delegation which is bringing a message of peace," he said.

After talking with residents and examining the damage, Froman, who comes from the nearby Tekoa settlement, held hands with a Muslim cleric as they both raised copies of the Koran in the air.

"My belief is in peace and in God," the white-bearded rabbi told reporters.

"Those who act against peace act against God. God will defeat those who do things like this."

Palestinians at the event expressed a similar sentiment.

"We are all from the same family and we must live as good neighbours," said Abed Farajallah, a Palestinian from the southern West Bank town of Idhna.

The attack came at a tense time, with peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians on hold over Israel's resumption of settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak dubbed the arson a "terrorist" attack aimed at hurting the chances for peace and dialogue with the Palestinians.

Washington too spoke out against the desecration of the mosque.

"We condemn this attack in the strongest terms and call for the perpetrators to be brought to justice," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.

Hardline Jewish settlers have been known to pursue what they call a "price tag" policy under which they attack Palestinians or their property whenever the Israeli government takes measures to curb settlement construction.

Over the last year, there have been several attacks on mosques in the West Bank, with the perpetrators scrawling Hebrew graffiti on the walls and sometimes setting the buildings on fire.

The Palestinians view the presence of some 500,000 Israelis in scores of settlements across the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, as a major impediment to the establishment of their promised state.

They have threatened to abandon peace talks that were relaunched on September 2 if Israel does not go back on its decision to resume building in the settlements.

The international community views all the settlements as illegal.