Netanyahu calls on world to condemn synagogue fire
'I expect all those who justifiably condemn any desecration of a mosque to equally cry out about this heinous act,' the prime minister says; authorities determine fire was arson.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on the world to condemn an arson attack against a makeshift synagogue in the West Bank where Torah scrolls were burned.
The scrolls were stored inside a tent that was used as a synagogue near a West Bank outpost that overlooked the site where the bodies of three Jewish teenagers were found in June 2014. Their abduction and murder was carried out by Hamas terrorists and set off a series of events that ultimately led to that summer's 50-day Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
Netanyahu said this weekend's desecration of the makeshift synagogue that was named after the teenagers was a result of the type of Palestinian incitement that has fed the current five-month-long wave of Palestinian violence.
"We will do everything to find who did this and bring them to justice but I expect all those, here and around the world, who justifiably condemn any desecration of a mosque ... to equally cry out about this heinous act," he said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting.
On Sunday, a Judea and Samaria Police Fire Department team determined that the fire at the makeshift synagogue was the result of arson.
Vandalism of mosques and churches, mostly blamed on Jewish extremists, have been a common occurance in Israel, but attacks on synagogues have been rare.
The Anti-Defamation League, a US group that battles anti-Semitism worldwide, called the incident "an act of anti-Semitism."
Education Minister Naftali Bennett said that "the images of burnt holy books in a synagogue are taken straight out of the darkest nights of our people's history."
The violence continued Sunday with an IDF soldier stabbed in Ashkelon and his attacker shot dead.
