Vandals deface Christian cemetery in Jaffa

"Price tag," "revenge" sprayed on tombs; graffiti also includes reference to Bat Yam synagogue defaced last month.

By BEN HARTMAN
Price tag attack on Christian cemetery in Jaffa 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Israel Police)
Price tag attack on Christian cemetery in Jaffa 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Israel Police)
The words “revenge” and “price tag” were found spray-painted at two sites in Jaffa on Thursday morning, including a Christian Orthodox cemetery where several tombstones were defaced.
The second vandalized site is a building on Machloul Street where Tel Aviv District Court Judge Chaled Kabub lives.
The graffiti at the cemetery includes a reference to the Haohel synagogue in Bat Yam, where swastikas were spray-painted last month. In April, swastikas were spray-painted at another synagogue in Bat Yam.
Police from the Ayalon subdistrict have investigated those incidents but have made no arrests.
In October 2011, the day after Yom Kippur, far-right graffiti was found spray-painted in Muslim and Christian cemeteries in Jaffa, including the words “price tag” and “death to Arabs.” Police were not convinced that the motivation was purely nationalistic, in that the graffiti included “death to Russians” and slogans linked to soccer hooligans.
Hours after the graffiti was reported, a firebomb was thrown at a Jaffa synagogue, but there was no injuries or damage.
The Abraham Fund Initiatives, an NGO that works in coexistence efforts, said in response to the vandalism on Thursday that “the racist attacks against Arab citizens are continuing and its clear that the condemnations that we are hearing aren’t stopping them. The government of Israel must work against this phenomenon in the same way it expects countries around the world to work against anti-Semitic acts against Jews.”