Israel Matzav

Muslim cemetery vandalized by Jews, repaired by 'settlers'

On Friday, a small group of Jews out of a much larger number who had come to visit the grave of the biblical leader Joshua, son of Nun, vandalized a Muslim cemetery.

The vandals spray-painted "Death to Arabs" on some graves and broke others. A total of nine tombstones were desecrated.

According to the IDF, the vandals were among some 1,300 worshippers who had come to pray at the grave.

Most, the army said, behaved in a manner "appropriate to a holy place." "A small group decided to cause a provocation," an IDF officer told Army Radio.

Minister without portfolio Ghaleb Majadle attacked the 'evil settlers' for destroying the graves:

Minister-without-Portfolio Ghaleb Majadle demanded earlier Sunday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz investigate the attack at the Kifl Harith cemetery.

"The settlers have lost any spark of humanity, and destroyed any legitimacy they had among the Israeli public," Majadle declared.

Majadle said that the vandals' only goal was to torpedo a chance for peace between Israelis and the Palestinians.

Well, overnight last night, the IDF, the civil administration and those 'evil settlers' repaired all the damage. (For the record, they could not repair it on Friday night and Saturday because doing so would have desecrated the Sabbath).

Work crews comprised of IDF soldiers, settlers, and civil administration representatives repaired overnight Saturday several graves in a Muslim cemetery near Ariel that were vandalized on Friday by a group of Jewish worshipers who came to pray at the grave of Yehoshua Bin-Nun.

Maj. Ganiv Eruv of the IDF Liason office for the Kalkilya area met with the head of the Kifl Harith village council and reported that the work was complete. Some of the graves had been broken, and others had been spray-painted with the slogan "Death to Arabs."

The IDF apologized for the incident.

Just like the Jordanians did after all those Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives were destroyed in 1948.... Oops. Sorry I mentioned that.... And by the way, maybe it wasn't 'settlers' who destroyed the Arab graves in the first place? Hmm....

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:08 PM