BONN (AFP) - The Palestinian delegation in Germany condemned Friday an attack on a synagogue in Germany believed to have been carried out by ethnic Arabs avenging Israeli actions against Palestinians.
"We are fundamentally opposed to attacks against religious institutions," the Palestinian representative in Bonn, Mohammed Nazal, said.
The conflict in the Middle East is "political and not religious," he said.
Two men, a 20-year-old Moroccan and a 19-year-old born in Jordan, were arrested Wednesday in connection with an October arson attack on a Duesseldorf synagogue, the chief German prosecutor announced Thursday.
The attack on the synagogue, which occurred on the night of October 2-3, the eve of the tenth anniversary of German reunification, was at the time linked to the resurgence of right-wing extremism in Germany.
But federal prosecutor Kay Nehm said the two arrested are believed to have acted more out of anger at the situation in the Middle East, seeking revenge after Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque on September 28th.
That provocative visit infuriated Palestinians, sparking weeks of bloody clashes and dealing a near-fatal blow to the Middle East peace process.
Nehm said Jordanian-born Belal T., who is stateless, and the Moroccan Khalid Z., who has a German passport, had "essentially" admitted committing the crime.
