- Title: Graves desecrated at Commonwealth war cemetery in Israel
- Date: 13th October 2019
- Summary: HAIFA, ISRAEL (OCTOBER 13, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GRAVESTONES AT A COMMONWEALTH MILITARY CEMETERY VANDALIZED WITH RED PAINT ISRAELI POLICE OFFICER ALONG INSPECTORS INSPECTING THE GRAVESTONES HAIFA RESIDENT, ZIV HAREL, INSPECTING GRAVESTONES (SOUNDBITE) (English) HAIFA RESIDENT, ZIV HAREL, SAYING: "I don't know if it is a crime of hate or not, or just vandalism, but this cemetery is not only for Christians, it is also for Jewish as you can see here, there are Muslims and Hindu that are buried here in the First World War, in the Second World War and in-between and the mandate time in Israel, the British mandate time, and behind the trees there is German, the Templer German cemetery. So it's part of Haifa, part of the history of Haifa, and it is very sad what we see here. I hope that all the communities in Haifa, the Arab community, the Jewish community, will come here together just to clean the cemetery and to make it again part of our history."
- Embargoed: 27th October 2019 11:29
- Keywords: Commonwealth military cemetery Haifa Haifa War Cemetery
- Location: HAIFA, ISRAEL/ JERUSALEM/ HAIFA, BRITISH MANDATE PALESTINE/ UNKNOWN
- City: HAIFA, ISRAEL/ JERUSALEM/ HAIFA, BRITISH MANDATE PALESTINE/ UNKNOWN
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Society/Social Issues,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001B0XJ1ON
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Dozens of gravestones at a Commonwealth military cemetery in Israel were desecrated in what the Israeli police spokesman said on Sunday (October 13) was a suspected hate crime.
The Haifa War Cemetery is the burial site of about 340 Commonwealth soldiers, most of them killed in World War One and some in World War Two.
At least 30 tombstones sprayed with red paint. Some, including a Christian memorial topped with a stone cross, were daubed with swastikas.
The vandalism was discovered on Friday (October 11).
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Saturday (October 12) that the graves' desecration was "an abhorrent crime" and that Israel would do everything possible to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Britain captured Palestine from the crumbling Ottoman Empire during World War One in 1917, and later governed it under an international mandate.
According to The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 86 of the 305 World War One Commonwealth burials at the cemetery are unidentified, and 36 World War Two casualties are also buried at the site.
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