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European Islamic party posts anti-Jew cartoons to teach lesson about Mohammed |
| By: Israel Insider staff and partners |
| Published: February 8, 2006 |
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About 300 Palestinians, some throwing stones and bottles, attacked an international observer mission in the Judean city of Hebron on Wednesday, smashing windows and trying set one of its buildings afire to protest Danish cartoons seen as insulting Islam.
Sixty members of the mission were inside at the time, said Gunhild Forselv, a spokeswoman for the Temporary International Presence, or TIPH, in Hebron, which serves as a buffer between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the volatile city.
Eleven Danish members of TIPH left more than a week ago after protests against the Danish cartoons began sweeping across the Muslim world, Forselv said.
The protesters, most of them youths, chased away outnumbered Palestinian police who were stationed outside the mission more than a week ago because of the unrest, Forselv said. But reinforcements were called in, and police took up positions again, she said.
Caricatures first published in Denmark, then reprinted in various European newspapers, show the Prophet Muhammad - itself an offense because Islamic tradition bars the depiction of the faith's founder. Fanning the flames was one cartoon showing Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
The offending cartoons have touched off protests in the Mideast, Muslim countries in Southeast Asia and Europe, with some demonstrators issuing death calls and others demanding a boycott of Danish and European goods.
Demonstrators attacked the mission's office building and sleeping quarters, smashing windows and trying to storm the structures. "Denmark out of Hebron," and "We will redeem our prophet," the crowd chanted.
The international observer mission in Hebron had decided, in consultation with the Hebron governor, to maintain a low profile, temporarily canceling regular patrols, which resumed Wednesday, Forselv said.
TIPH, made up of unarmed observers from Scandinavian and other European countries, was established in 1994 after a Jewish settler killed 29 Palestinians at a Hebron holy site. The observers are supposed to help reduce friction between the city's 500 Jewish residents and 170,000 Palestinians. |
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