By BosNewsLife Middle East Service
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (BosNewsLife)– Israeli police were investigating on Wednesday, August 21, a fire bomb attack on a a Roman Catholic monastery, which also involved anti-Christian graffiti.
Perpetrators threw the fire bomb into the entrance hallway of Beit Jamal Monastery in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, and sprayed the building’s outer wall with the words “price tag,” Israeli shorthand for anti-Arab hate crimes, as well as “death to the Gentiles” and “revenge,” police said.
Monday night’s incident, in which nobody was injured, was the latest attack against Christians, including Arabs as well as ‘Messianic Jews’.
Jewish ultra-nationalists and hardline Orthodox groups have been blamed for several acts of vandalism targeting churches and mosques in Israel and the West Bank in recent years.
“The violation of the monastery is directly linked to attacks against over twenty Christian and Muslim places of worship in the last three years,” said Gadi Gvaryahu, Chairman of the Bright Tag organization working to deter violent “price tag” attacks against Palestinians.
‘SEEKING UNREST’
“The attackers seek to cause unrest between the various religions in Israel and bring about bloodshed,” he added in comments published by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
In 2007 the Jewish terrorist Jack Teitel detonated a bomb near Beit Jamal Monastery, wounding a tractor operator working for the monastery, Israeli media reported.
The latest violence reportedly added to fear within the church community in the area. “The nuns are in shock. They’re the most non-violent people there are. They say they have good relations with the Jews. Why would they do this?,” Haaretz quoted an Israeli woman living close to the nuns, identified only as R., as saying.
On Wednesday, August 21, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, reportedly arrived at the monastery and condemned the incident.
(BosNewsLife, the first truly independent news agency covering persecuted Christians, is ‘Breaking the News for Compassionate Professionals’ since 2004).
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