Anonymous vandals defaced a memorial for fallen soldiers from the community of Omer, near Beersheba in the Negev over the weekend, the Omer local council says.
The memorial was spray-painted with swastikas and graffiti of a Palestinian flag, as well as a distorted Star of David. The council filed a complaint with police.
A memorial for fallen IDF soldiers from the community of Omer in the Negev was defaced with graffiti over the weekend of April 3, 2015. (Photo credit: Nissim Nir/Omer Regional Council Spokesperson’s Office)
Council head Pini Badash says that “in the last two weeks arsonists had been operating in the area. We wondered who set fire to the plants near the memorial. When I see the graffiti, with Arabic text and swastikas, it already testifies who is behind this. There should be no forgiveness, the perpetrators must be found. We will have to install cameras nearby.”
Badash says he knows who the perpetrators are. “The direction is clear, I have nothing against the Bedouin, but the suffering by the community and by me is brought about by a certain type of population. This cannot continue here. Police deal with the small things, thousands of hours of interrogations on marginal issues, but sadly, they do not invest enough in the day-to-day personal safety of residents. I hope police catch whoever did this. If I get to catch them – I do not envy them,” he tells Ynet.
The police are conducting an investigation into the matter.
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
