Description

An Israeli policeman walks past graffiti on the wall of a church
near an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem, on
May 9, 2014. The graffiti reads "King David for the Jews...
Jesus is garbage".(AFP Thomas Coex)
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JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on a Jerusalem church on Friday, despite Israeli police stepping up security around religious sites ahead of a visit by Pope Francis later this month.

"Price tag... King David for the Jews... Jesus is garbage" was spray-painted in Hebrew on the wall of St George's, a Romanian Orthodox church near an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.

Israeli police said that "Death to Arabs" was found written on a house in the Old City in East Jerusalem, and swastikas were scrawled on the wall of a west Jerusalem apartment.

The Roman Catholic church has demanded Israeli action after Hebrew graffiti reading "Death to Arabs and Christians and to everyone who hates Israel" was daubed on its Notre Dame complex in Jerusalem on Monday.

"The bishops are very concerned about the lack of security and lack of responsiveness from the political sector, and fear an escalation of violence," the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.

The attacks on Christian property come amid a rise in anti-Palestinian hate crimes. Israeli ministers held an emergency meeting on Wednesday, pledging to enforce harsh measures against perpetrators.

The US State Department's 2013 Country Reports on Terrorism included "price tag" attacks for the first time, citing UN figures of some "399 attacks by extremist Israeli settlers that resulted in Palestinian injuries or property damage."

Such attacks were "largely unprosecuted," it said.

Israeli media on Friday reported that police and Shin Bet feared Jewish right-wing extremists would try to attract media attention by attacking Christian sites ahead of the Pope's visit to the region, scheduled to begin on May 24 in Jordan.

He is then due to spend two days in the Holy Land from May 25.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld highlighted a boosted security presence around sensitive Christian sites.

"We've already stepped up security in different sites, in different areas, and obviously will continue to do so," he said.

Rosenfeld said police did not connect the increase in attacks on Christian sites with the upcoming papal visit.

The perpetrators of violence against Palestinian communities are rarely prosecuted. There are hundreds of racist attacks against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank every year.
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by IMEMC & Agencies

[Friday, May 9, 2014] A number of Israeli vandals wrote anti-Christian graffiti, along with other anti-Arab graffiti, near a Roman Church in occupied Jerusalem, and on a wall in the Chains Gate area, in Jerusalem’s Old City.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Israeli police said that Price Tag fanatics wrote graffiti, including slurs and insults against Jesus Christ, and Christianity, and fled the scene.

The Police added that other graffiti, such as “Death To Arabs”, was found on a wall and on a circuit box, in the Chain Gates area.

On Monday, other racist graffiti, including "Death to Arabs", was located on a wall that belongs to the Assembly of Bishops of the Notre Dame Center, in occupied East Jerusalem.

The Roman Church in occupied Jerusalem said it is alarmed by the sharp increase in attacks and threats to Christians, especially as the Pope will be visiting Israel and Palestine later this month.

In a statement, bishops of the Roman Church said it is alarming that, while such attacks are taking place, and as more attacks indicate lack of security, Israeli political leaders remain unresponsive, adding that such attacks “are likely to escalate if the situation continues”.

On Tuesday, [April 29, 2014] In a letter delivered to the Latin Patriarch in the Holy Land, Paul Marcuzzo of Nazareth, an Israeli man, has said that all Christian priests, and Christians in Israel, must leave the country “or else a 100 Christians will be killed every hour of delay”.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that the Israeli security services fear that Jewish radicals might carry out a major hate crime against the Christian population or institutions to drum up media attention during the Pope's pilgrimage.

Police districts, the newspaper said, were ordered to produce security plans to protect Christian sites and gather intelligence on Jewish extremist activities.

A police spokesperson declined to comment directly on the report, but said stringent security measures would be in effect for the papal visit.