"Youth" arrested and then freed over West Bank Mosque attack

A youth identified initially by Israeli TV channel 1 as the grandson of rabbi Meir Kahaneh, founder of the Kach movement, was earlier arrested for the outrageous arson attack on the West Bank mosue in Yasuf. He has now been released. The story below does not given the name of suspect, because it is prohibited to publicize such information about minors. However the information that his father and grandfather were killed by terrorists fits the description. . 

 

 

Last update - 20:49 31/12/2009       
Settler teen arrested over West Bank mosque arson, then freed
By Chaim Levinson, Haaretz Correspondent

Israel Police on Thursday arrested a settler teen suspected of involvement in the torching of a West Bank mosque three weeks ago, but later released him saying they did not have enough evidence.

 

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the youth was released after several hours of questioning. He would not say if the teen was still a suspect. He said the investigation is still in progress.

 

The teen, whose parents and grandfather were killed in Palestinian terror attacks, was arrested at the Tapuah Junction in the West Bank.
 
The vandalism at the mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf drew harsh rebuke from Israeli leaders, among them politicians and clergy. During the attack, the vandals torched books of the Koran and prayer carpets, and scrawled Nazi slogans in Hebrew across the walls.

 

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger visited the mosque following the attack to express his condemnation.

 

"I came here to expression my revulsion at this wretched act of burning a place holy to the Muslim people," Metzger told the residents after he was escorted into the village under the protection of the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian police. "This is how the Holocaust began, the tragedy of the Jewish people of Europe."

 

A delegation of West Bank settlers, led by renowned peacemaker Rabbi Menachem Froman, brought copies of the Koran to the village to replace those lost in the fire.

 

Although they intended to enter the village as well, the delegates were held up by the Israel Defense Forces and carried out their meeting with the village elders at a nearby checkpoint.

 

Israel had suspected that settlers had carried out the arson to demonstrate their anger over the government's enforcement of a freeze in settlement construction