11 Arab cars vandalized in east Jerusalem price-tag attack
The attack comes less than two months after the nation’s largest integrated educational institution, Jerusalem’s Max Rayne Hand in Hand School, was set on fire.
By DANIEL K. EISENBUDCar vandalized in Beit Safafa in suspected price tag attack(photo credit: COURTESY ISRAEL POLICE)
Eleven cars in the southeast Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa were vandalized early Wednesday morning in an apparent price-tag attack, police said. According to Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, all the vehicles’ tires were slashed before dawn, with Hebrew anti-Arab graffiti spray-painted on the hood of one of the cars.“An official complaint was made to police by local residents this morning, and at the moment police are looking for the suspects behind it and searching the area hoping to make arrests,” he said.Rosenfeld added that an investigation into the vandalism has been launched.The attack comes less than two months after the nation’s largest integrated educational institution, Jerusalem’s Max Rayne Hand in Hand School, was set on fire and anti-Arab graffiti was spray-painted on its walls.Three Jewish men from the extremist group Lehava, which follows the racist teachings of the late Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane, were arrested days after the attack.Since the three were charged with the crimes, 17 other member of Lehava have also been arrested for incitement, including its leader, Bentzi Gopstein, who has contended that the arrests violate their freedom of speech.Beit Safafa last made national headlines last year, after the Supreme Court upheld the state’s right to build a controversial new highway through the neighborhood, which residents protested will divide the community.
