More than two weeks of violence have sparked concerns of a full-scale uprising. The arson attack on Joseph's Tomb in Nablus came as Palestinians called for a "Friday of revolution" against Israel, and clashes along the border with the Gaza Strip saw Israelis kill two Palestinians, one a student, and wound 98.
President Obama has called on both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to tamp down on inflammatory rhetoric.
The violence began on October 1 when a suspected cell of the Islamist movement Hamas murdered a Jewish couple in front of their children in the West Bank. The killings followed several clashes at east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound in September between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths.
In New York UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Friday's "reprehensible" attack at the opening of a Security Council meeting on the violence.
Endangered Scholars Worldwide is gravely concerned about the escalation of this conflict and its negative reverberations on higher education. We stand in solidarity with those who have been injured or have lost loved ones.