JAFFA (PIC) — It was revealed on Friday that an a Jewish extremist tried late Wednesday night to set the Hasan Beik Mosque in Jaffa on fire.
Local volunteers who take turns to sleep at the mosque to protect it woke up at 2:30 am by an unusual noise. They searched the area and found a Jewish man in his thirties inside the mosque’s yards and had in his position a container filled with petrol which he intended to use to set fire to the mosque.
The assailant broke the CCTV cameras which were installed only months ago to protect the mosque against recurring attacks on the mosque.
The assailant admitted to those guarding the mosque that he intended to set fire to the mosque but told them that he has psychological and domestic problems and he just wanted to attract attention by committing this crime. When asked for the reason of him breaking the CCTV cameras he replied that he did not want to be discovered and admitted that it was the second time he attempted to burn down the mosque.
The assailant was handed to the Israeli police who later released saying that the man was mentally retarded and that he even tried to set fire to his own house.
But the local Palestinian community does not trust the police and believe that such excuses are ready to be used when their community is under attack.
Two years ago a Jewish couple threw a pig’s head inside the mosque before that the windows of the mosque were burned down and in 2000 a group of vandals belted the mosque with stones.
