Bedouin tent torched in apparent Jewish extremist attack

‘Administrative revenge’ graffitied at scene, in likely reference to recent detention of far-right Israeli activists

By Stuart Winer

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

13 August 2015, 11:34 am

Edit

Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Graffiti reading 'administrative revenge' found near an apparent arson attack on a Bedouin tent in the West Bank, August 13, 2015. (Zakaria Sadeh/Rabbis for Human Rights)

A tent in a Palestinian Bedouin village was burned to cinders overnight Wednesday in the northern West Bank in a suspected arson attack by Jewish right-wing extremists. There were no injuries.

Close to the charred remains of the tent, which was used for storage, graffiti on a rock proclaimed “administrative revenge” alongside a Star of David.

The graffiti seemed to refer to the internment without charge — known as administrative detention — of three alleged Jewish extremists in the wake of a July 31 arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma that killed 18-month-old Palestinian Ali Saad Dawabsha and his father, Saad. The mother and a second, 4-year-old son are still being treated in Israeli hospitals for severe burns.

“A tent belonging to a Palestinian Bedouin was set on fire and completely burned. Luckily there were no people in the tent but only food for (livestock),” the Israeli NGO Rabbis for Human Rights said.

It distributed pictures from the scene, at Ein Samiya north of Ramallah, showing a blackened skeleton of metal tubing that could have been the frame of a tent or shack.

The charred remains of a Bedouin tent after an arson attack in the West Bank, August 13, 2015. (Zakaria Sadeh/Rabbis for Human Rights)

Ein Samiya lies roughly five kilometers (3 miles) south of Duma.

Police confirmed in a statement that they received a report on the graffiti early on Thursday and were investigating but did not immediately confirm any arson attack.

In the wake of the Duma attack, Israeli authorities vowed to crack down on Jewish extremists including using administrative detention, which allows authorities to hold suspects indefinitely — in renewable six-month terms — without trial.

On Sunday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon approved the detention for six months of Jewish activists Meir Ettinger, the grandson of the late Israeli-American ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane, and Eviatar Slonim.

The detention orders came after Mordechai Mayer, 18, was detained last week for a period of six months without trial for his suspected involvement in an arson attack in June on the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes, located on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

[mappress mapid=”5209″]

AFP contributed to this report.