ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: Hateful graffiti found on Muslim and Christian graves and a molotov cocktail hurled towards synagogue as tension rises in mixed Jewish-Arab city of Jaffa

Record ID: 572730

  • Title: ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: Hateful graffiti found on Muslim and Christian graves and a molotov cocktail hurled towards synagogue as tension rises in mixed Jewish-Arab city of Jaffa
  • Date: 9th October 2011
  • Summary: BOY WAVING PALESTINIAN FLAG
  • Embargoed: 24th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Crime,Politics,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVAEHCD1650VCOYH0F5F3OBQDSGE
  • Story Text: Dozens of gravestones were found desecrated at adjacent Muslim and Christian cemeteries overlooking the sea at the central Israeli city of Jaffa on Saturday (October 8), and a fire-bomb was later thrown at a nearby synagogue.
    The incidents were reported on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
    At least five tombs were smashed and others 20 sprayed with Hebrew graffiti, including "Death to Arabs" and "Price Tag", the calling-card slogan used by militant Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and their supporters.
    "The people of Yaffa (Jaffa) will not let this happen, will not sit down and see that a group of Fascists come in to our community, come in to our neighbourhood and destroy and vandalize our graveyards," a local resident said as he observed the damaged graves.
    The "price-taggers" have vowed to avenge any move by Israel to uproot West Bank settlement outposts built without Israeli government permission, and have torched mosques and vandalised both Israeli and Palestinian property.
    Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld told Reuters an investigation had been launched and officers had increased vigilance. "We are looking into who could possibly be behind the incident," but added that there was no initial indication that the suspects were indeed settlers or settler supporters, and that there was also a possibility that they might be soccer hooligans.
    Later on Saturday, a few dozen Jewish and Arab demonstrators turned out to protest against the cemetery desecration, holding banners reading 'In Jaffa there is unity against racism', and 'Jaffa says no to racism and settlements.
    Jaffa is the ancient part of Tel Aviv, with a mixed Jewish and Arab population, including Christians and Muslims.
    Rosenfeld also reported a fire-bomb thrown onto the roof of a synagogue late on Saturday in the Jaffa area caused no damage or casualties.
    On Monday (October 3), a mosque in a Bedouin village in northern Israel was set on fire and graffiti sprayed on its walls in an attack authorities have blamed on hardline Jewish settlers.
    The torching drew broad condemnation from top Israeli leaders and Peres and the country's chief rabbis also visited the scene in a bid to calm tensions.
    In 2005 a Jewish couple was charged for throwing a pig's head into a Tel Aviv mosque in an attempt to derail Israel's then pullout from the Gaza Strip, which went ahead in August of that year.
    In 2008 riots erupted in the coastal city of Acre in northern Israel when Jews accosted an Arab man who drove his car into a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood during Yom Kippur when all traffic halts and the country shuts down for 24 hours.
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