5 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Monday September 5th the village of Qusra were woken at 2 in the morning to find their mosque on fire. Settlers from the illegal outpost of Migron had entered the village and walked 1km until they arrived at the mosque, spraying cars with stars of David along the way. The settlers had sprayed Hebrew on the walls, broken two of the windows and thrown burning tires in an attempt to burn the mosque down. The graffiti on the walls read ‘Mohammad is a pig’ and ‘This is revenge’.
An Israeli court injunction was passed just hours before the attack, requiring the demolition of three structures within the illegal outpost. It seems that those settlers involved in the arson were targeting the mosque to vent their frustration about the Supreme court’s decision.
This attack comes 5 days after settlers from the same outpost uprooted 100 olive trees. When the Israeli forces finally arrived at the scene they positioned themselves between the settlers and the villagers and directed the villagers to leave the area where their olive trees lay on the floor. As the villagers walked away one soldier shot live ammunition at Jamal Adli Hussein, a 21 year old man. The bullet entered both of Jamal’s legs and he was rushed to hospital immediately.
People in the village are scared about the recent escalation of violence and are worried about what may happen during the olive harvest, which will begin in one months time.