Violation: burning down Abu Bakir es-Siddik mosque and writing hatred-enticing slogans on its walls

Location: Aqraba town/ Nablus

Date: October 14th 2014

Perpetrators: Tapuah colonists

Victims: Aqraba residents

Details:

At the early hours of dawn of  October 14th 2014, a group of right-wing extremists of Price tag sneaked into the southern part of Aqraba town, west of Nablus governorate; more specifically the area known as Ras Karkas.

It should be marked the colonists took advantage of the quietness of suburb to carry out their act of vandalism. At dawn, gangsters jumped over the wall of the mosque and spilled diesel over  the floor of women praying section and sat fire to it. Glass were shattered and windows were taken out of their places before extremists blazed the place and ran away.

According to the field follow-up of Land Research Center, the damage reached out the carpets, the Wudu "ablution" place and the windows and doors.

 

 

Photos1-5: the fire signs in the mosque

Not only that, gangsters wrote hatred-enticing slogans in Hebrew that translates "Price tag" and Tapuah is Kahana in reference to Tapuah colony, which is  located on confiscated lands form Nablus.

Photo 6: the discriminative slogans

Abu Bakir mosque:

It is located in southern part of Aqraba in the area known as Ras Karkas. The mosque is composed of two floors and was built by stones. The first floor is of 203m2 and is divided into a "ablution" place and a residence for the mosque keeper in addition to a small grocery shop. As for the second floor, it is of 260m2 and is considered men praying section.

 

Photos 7-8: a scene of the targeted mosque from the outside

An activist on lands defending Yosusef Derieh to the LRC researcher stated the following: "During the past six months, Aqraba went through two assaults undertaken by Price tag colonists. The first was in July and was represented in torching a agricultural barrack and a fodder storehouse (click her). Today we witnessed this brutal violation in the exact same location where the previous attack happened by the same people. It's like that they are not leaving us alone but instead, they insist on destroying and damaging our houses and lands. Noteworthy, the occupation army and its soldiers are associates with colonists since they accompany them and provide them with needed protection at times of attacks".

 It should be mentioned that Price taggers escalated their attacks on sacred places of worship be them Christian or Muslim  in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Setting fire to those places was a prominent means to express their grudge. Another means was writing discriminative and hatred-enticing slogans on walls, indicating "Death to Arabs and Muslims" and offenses against Prophet Mohammad(PBOH).

It should also be mentioned that colonists worked on forming a gang named" Revenge" and " Price tag", the attacks of which are to be represented in torching and damaging vehicles, houses and worshiping places. This hatred and revenge  ideology is derived from the extremists Rabbis  in the Israeli government who believe in the necessity to terminate all Arabs and Muslims.

Land Research Center sees that attacks and violations on worshiping places a clear-cut breach and contradiction with the international and lawful conventions, which stated the prohibition of any act of violation against historical and artistic sites in addition to worshiping places. Such conventions are :

Geneva convention ,ARTICLE 27:

Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.

Hague Convention ;CONVENTION RESPECTING THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR ON LAND Art. 56

The property of municipalities, that of institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, even when State property, shall be treated as private property.All seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions of this character, historic monuments, works of art and science, is forbidden, and should be made the subject of legal proceedings.

Geneva Convention; Protocol I:

Article 53 outlaws attacks on dams, dikes, nuclear generating stations, and places of worship. The first three are "works and installations containing dangerous forces" and may be attacked but only in ways that do not threaten to release the dangerous forces (i.e., it is permissible to attempt to capture them but not to try to destroy them).

 

 

 

Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC