A
seminary belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church was torched and defaced
in Jerusalem on Thursday, and police suspect it may be the work of
radical right wing Israelis.
A day earlier, a mosque in the West Bank was set on fire.
In both cases, the buildings were defaced with anti-Christian and anti-Arab slurs.
In
the Wednesday incident, words denigrating Jesus and the phrase
"redemption of Zion" were written on the wall in Hebrew, police
spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
"There is
no room for such deplorable activity in Jerusalem," Jerusalem Mayor Nir
Barkat said Thursday. "We must eradicate this behavior and bring those
responsible to justice."
Shortly
after the incident, a Jerusalem district court issued a gag order that
covered all details of the investigation and anything that identifies
suspects.
In the mosque attack, anti-Arab slurs and the word "revenge" were painted in Hebrew.
Officials
suspect the Tuesday act may be a "price tag" attacks, a term frequently
used by radical Israeli settlers to denote reprisal attacks against
Palestinians in response to moves by the Israeli government to evacuate
illegal West Bank outposts.
