(Communicated by the Office of the President)

In the wake of the arson attack on the mosque in the Palestinian town of Aqraba, President Reuven Rivlin issued the following statement:

"This morning I spoke with the Israeli Chief of Police regarding the arson attack on the mosque in Aqraba. I asked him to lead an investigation as a matter of urgency.

Burning holy places is terrorism, and should be treated as terrorism - whether the crime was racially, religiously or nationalistically motivated. In order to deal with this problem - we must first acknowledge the seriousness of the problem. We cannot continue to regard incidents like these as marginal. Rather, we must uproot them. All those who remain silent on such deeds are merely laying the ground for the next such attack.

We must remember that, if we do not act decisively, we will all pay the ‘price tag’."