Another Israeli church defaced with 'price tag' graffiti
Graffiti reading 'Jesus, son of a bitch, price
tag,' was found on the door of the Church of the Dormition on Mount
Zion, just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.


By
Oz Rosenberg and

Nir Hasson

Oct.03, 2012
7:07 AM
this story is by
Oz Rosenberg
By
Nir Hasson
Oct.03,2012
7:07 AM

Less than a month after a
monastery at Latrun was vandalized with "price tag" graffiti, similar
graffiti was found Tuesday morning on the door of the Church of the
Dormition on Mount Zion, just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.


The graffiti, which read "Jesus, son of a bitch, price tag," had
already been removed by midmorning Tuesday, Israel Police spokesman
Mickey Rosenfeld said.


Jerusalem Police Chief Maj. Gen. Yossi Pariente yesterday ordered the
formation of a special investigative team to locate the perpetrators. No
one has yet been arrested for last month's vandalism.


Jewish extremists are thought to have carried out similar vandalism on
churches, mosques and army property in response to what they consider
pro-Palestinian government policies. The Latrun vandalism occurred
shortly after settlers were evicted from the illegal outpost of Migron.


The Dormition Church, built over a century ago near the site of the
Last Supper, is one of the Franciscan order's most important holdings in
the Holy Land. Though Israel has only about 155,000 Christian citizens,
less than 2 percent of its 7.9 million people, the repeated defacing of
their sacred sites has shocked the country and drawn official
condemnation.


"Price tag actions contradict the morals and values of Judaism and do
great harm to the State of Israel," said President Shimon Peres,
speaking at a meeting with one of Israel's chief rabbis at a Sukkot
reception yesterday. "It is forbidden to harm the holy sites of [other]
religions and faiths."


Church officials have said mere condemnation is not enough. In an
interview with Haaretz a few weeks ago, one of the Vatican's top
officials in the Holy Land, the Rev. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, sharply
condemned what he termed Israelis' derogatory attitude toward
Christians.


"When you say 'Christianity' to Israelis they immediately think of the
Holocaust and the [Spanish] Inquisition," he said. "People don't know
that we are here and have roots here."


He said this attitude seems to be prevalent in Israeli society, noting
that priests are often spat on by yeshiva students, and that National
Union MK Michael Ben-Ari had torn up a New Testament in the Knesset.

"If you as a Jew want people to respect you, you need to respect others," Pizzaballa said.

Various rabbis condemned the vandalism.


"We only just finished with Yom Kippur ... and now we have another sin
for which we must atone - contempt for another religion," said Rabbi
Mauricio Balter, president of the Masorti (Conservative ) Movement's
Rabbinical Assembly.


Rabbi Gilad Kariv of the Reform Movement warned that "This price tag
epidemic threatens to become a routine part of Israeli public life,
causing moral, social and international damage. Law enforcement, which
has failed to deal with the phenomenon, must make this a much higher
priority than it has until now."


The Reform Movement, in a statement, also urged the thousands of people
who will be visiting Jerusalem's Old City during the intermediate days
of this week's Sukkot holiday to "visit the desecrated site and express
their disgust with this act."


The Custodia Terrae Sanctae, the Franciscans' representative in the
Holy Land, said that Israel must do more to eliminate the price tag
phenomenon.


"The attempts to damage monasteries and the spray-painting of
inflammatory graffiti against Christianity, which have occurred
repeatedly recently, are an insult to the hundreds of millions of
Christian faithful throughout the world, and the State of Israel cannot
allow such grave acts to occur," the statement said.
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