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A Palestinian man stands at the entrance of a mosque in the northern Israeli city of Umm al-Faham, on April 18, 2014 (AFP/Jack Guez)
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Police are investigating the incident overnight Thursday in the northern Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm.

By Jack Khoury for Haaretz

Vandals sprayed anti-Arab graffiti and tried to set alight the door of a mosque in the northern Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm overnight Thursday.

The phrase "Arabs out" was sprayed on the wall of the Araq al-Shabab mosque, and the arson attempt caused light damage to the property.

The vandals were caught on film by private cameras in the area. The footage shows two people setting something alight and then driving away in a white vehicle.

Umm al-Fahm residents discovered the vandalism when they arrived at the mosque for Friday morning prayers and alerted police.

The mosque's imam, Jamil Mahajana, said that the video footage of the vandals indicates the incident took place at around 3:00 A.M. "This is a nasty and vile act, and doing harm to holy places crosses all red lines."

Police are investigating the incident, which is the fourth of its kind in northern Israel this month, according to Channel 10. Police suspect the incident is a 'price tag' attack. This term was originally used to refer to acts of vengeance on Palestinians by settlers in the West Bank in response to curbs of settlement construction and other Israeli policies. Today, however, it is often used in Israel to refer to any anti-Arab vandalism.

MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al) said on Friday, "This is an escalation and a crossing of red lines, and the police and security services must treat these incidents and vandals as terror incidents."

Earlier this month, some 40 cars had their tires slashed and anti-Arab graffiti was sprayed on walls in an Arab town in the northern Israeli town of Jish, near Safed, known in Hebrew as Gush Halav.

“Only goys [non-Jews] will be driven out of our land” was among the graffiti sprayed by the vandals.

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by Chris Carlson - 1 of International Middle East Media Center Editorial Group

Suspected Jewish vandals, on Friday, set fire to a mosque and sprayed racist graffiti in the northern Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm, on the border of the West Bank, according to an Israeli police spokesman.

Mickey Rosenfeld told Ma'an News Agency that there was "damage to the front door of the mosque and graffiti found on nearby walls."

Israeli police and border police arrived at the scene and are investigating the incident, he said, adding that the attack had "price tag" motives.

Graffiti on the walls in the town read "Arabs out", according to Israeli media.

In early April, Jewish vandals slashed the tires of over 40 cars and sprayed racist graffiti in the predominantly Christian town of Jish in northern Israel.

"Only goyim should be evacuated from our land" was sprayed on village walls.

A week earlier, vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on the walls of a convent west of Jerusalem and damaged vehicles parked nearby.

Slogans including "Mary is a cow," "price tag" and "America (is) Nazi Germany" were sprayed in Hebrew on the walls of the Roman Catholic sanctuary.

Furthermore, in early January, Ma'an reports that vandals also sprayed graffiti reading "Death to Arabs," "No to Coexistence," and "Arabs = Murderers" on a building in Jaffa.

In the same month, a group of settlers set fire to the facade of a mosque in the Salfit village of Deir Istiya and sprayed racist slogans on its walls.

The perpetrators of violence against Palestinian communities are rarely prosecuted. There are hundreds of racist attacks against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank every year.

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Hundreds protest vandalism of mosque in northern Israel

Assailants had scrawled threatening graffiti and tried to burn the door of the building in the northern Israeli town of Umm am-Fahm.

By Jack Khoury for Haaretz
Apr. 21, 2014 | 7:54 PM

Hundreds of people demonstrated at the Umm al-Fahm junction Monday evening and blocked nearby Route 65 to protest the recent vandalism of a mosque in the largely Arab Israeli city.

Protesters held signs with slogans such as “Price tag is a terror organization,” referring to anti-Arab hate crimes.

A large police contingent was sent to the site, and the chief of the Umm al-Fahm police station negotiated with local leaders to try to get the road reopened to traffic. The police warned drivers to use alternate routes.

Early Friday morning, assailants spray-painted “Arabs out” on the wall of the Araq al-Shabab mosque and tried to burn the door, causing light damage. Private security cameras filmed two young men setting the mosque’s entrance door alight and leaving in a white vehicle.

According to the mosque’s imam, Jamil Mahajana, the footage showed that the incident took place at around 3 A.M. “This is a nasty and vile act, and doing harm to holy places crosses all red lines,” he said.

In Tuba-Zangaria in the north, a mosque was set on fire in October 2011, and similar incidents have taken place in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

Earlier this month, the tires of some 40 cars were slashed and anti-Arab graffiti was sprayed on walls in the northern Israeli town of Jish — known as Gush Halav in Hebrew — near Safed.

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Published 21/04/2014

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Over 1,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel in Umm al-Fahm protested Monday against "price tag" attacks after a mosque in the town was vandalized by suspected Jewish extremists days before.

Protesters closed Route 65 and Israeli police were heavily deployed in the area, Palestinian member of the Knesset Taleb al-Sana told Ma'an.

Al-Sana said Israel "should arrest members of the 'price tag' gang and prosecute them as a terrorist organization."

"However, we are faced with carelessness and recklessness by the ministry of internal security, as the price tag gang has legitimacy in the government," he added.

Two other Palestinian MKs attended the protest -- Muhammad Baraka and Raed Salah, al-Sana said.

Suspected Jewish extremists set fire to a mosque and sprayed racist graffiti in the town on Friday.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an that there was "damage to the front door of the mosque and graffiti found on nearby walls."

Israeli police and border police arrived at the scene and are investigating the incident, he said, adding that the attack had "price tag" motives.

The Israeli news site Ynet quoted the mosque's imam as calling on the police to "arrest the criminals. Their only aim is to hurt relations between Arabs and Jews."

The perpetrators of violence against Palestinian communities are rarely prosecuted. There are hundreds of racist attacks against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank every year.