Credit where it’s due: Isabel Kershner’s piece in the Times today on the torching of a mosque in the West Bank included several references to Jewish extremism and land-grabbing.
On the front stoop of the mosque, the vandals left graffiti in Hebrew that read, “Price tag — Greetings from Effi.”
Price tag is the name of a provocative policy developed by some radical settlers last year. It calls for settlers and their supporters to respond to any move by the Israeli authorities against the settlements or illegal outposts, usually by attacking Palestinian property. The villagers assume the attack was meant as revenge for the Israeli government’s recently declared temporary moratorium on new building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Effi, a Hebrew nickname for Efraim, is also an acronym for a far-rightist group.
The piece also gave a Palestinian the last word, on the new Israeli plan to pump money into the colonies:
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said in a statement that the new map “serves as a blueprint for future settlement expansion.”
He continued: “It reveals the extent to which Israel’s ‘settlement moratorium’ is a sham.”
