WJD
On Sunday night, in a shocking act of desecration, what was a apparently a group of Haredi Jews spray-painted a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising at Israel's Holocaust museum Yad Vashem with anti-Zionist and antisemitic graffiti.
According to the Times of Israel, the blood curdling slogans included such phrases as "Hitler, thank you for the great Holocaust," "The State of Israel — the spiritual Auschwitz of Sephardic Jewry," "Jews, wake up! The evil cynical regime does not protect us, only endangers us", and "If Hitler hadn’t existed, the Zionists would have invented him."
Yad Vashem officials and others rushed to condemn the attack, unprecedented in Israeli history. While Haredi hostility toward Zionist is well-known, it has never before stooped to desecrating national memorials to the entire Jewish people, and certainly not the Holocaust.
Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev condemned the vandalism, saying: “We are shocked and dazed by this callous expression of burning hatred against the Zionists and Zionism.”“This unprecedented act crosses a red line. I have reported it to the Minister of Education Gideon Sa’ar, who also expressed his bewilderment. I also spoke to Yad Vashem Council Chairman Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, who joined me in expressing his concern over this grave deed.”
Haredim are the prime suspects because of "the clear Hebrew handwriting" of the vandals "and the references to Zionism and the Holocaust." Security camera footage of the incident does apparently exist.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein gave perhaps the most succinct expression of public sentiment, calling the incident a "spit in the face of the State of Israel and the victims of the Holocaust, and desecrates their memory."
No comments:
Post a Comment