Vandals deface Arab-owned cars in East Jerusalem

Attackers slash tires of 34 vehicles, scrawl racist invective on side of bus in Beit Hanina

Vandals slashed the tires of 34 cars and scrawled graffiti on a bus parked in the northeastern Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Beit Hanina.

The graffiti on the bus read, “Gentiles in the land [of Israel] are our enemies,” Israel Radio reported.

The police opened an investigation into the incident.

The vandalism bears the hallmarks of previous “price tag” attacks carried out by extremists linked to the settler movement against targets associated with Palestinians and other non-Jews in Israel.

Two weeks ago, 19 cars were vandalized in the predominantly Arab Israeli town of Jaljulia in the Sharon region.

The perpetrators slashed some of the cars’ tires and scrawled graffiti reading “God is king” on some of the walls, according to a report by Israeli news portal Walla.

It was the first such incident in the Israeli territory known as the Triangle, a concentration of Arab towns along the Green Line in the Sharon.

There was a similar act of vandalism in Beith Hanina nine months ago, for which police have yet to make any arrests, according to Israel Radio.

An IDF soldier walks past a bus on which suspected Jewish vandals painted graffiti reading ‘Gentiles in the land are enemies’ on March 24, 2014 in Beit Hanina (photo credit: AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

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