The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #141076   Message #3253338
Posted By: Jim Carroll
09-Nov-11 - 05:08 AM
Thread Name: Palestine (continuation)
Subject: RE: Palestine (continuation)
Apology accepted Mike - but I really dont think "great disappointments fits the bill here.

Apropos of nothing really:

From the Irish Times this morning.
Jim Carroll
SWASTIKAS SPRAYED ON HOME OF ISRAELI PEACE CAMPAIGNER
HARRIET SHERWOOD
in Jerusalem
The home of a prominent Israeli peace campaigner has been vandal¬ised. Death threats and swastikas were spray-painted on walls and a nearby vehicle, amid alarm among human rights groups about increasingly hostile and violent actions against them.
Police confirmed they were investigating the attack on the Jerusalem home of Hagit Ofran, who works for Peace Now, an Israeli organisation which moni¬tors settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The graffiti included the words "Hagit Ofran RIP"; "Rabin is waiting for you", a reference to the fate of assassinated Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin; and "price tag", the signature of extremist set-tlers who carry out operations in revenge for moves to demolish unauthorised West Bank outposts. The names of two recently disman¬tled outposts were also sprayed on walls.
It is the second such attack on Ms Ofran's home in two months. On Sunday, Peace Now's offices were evacuated after a telephone call warned of an imminent bomb attack.
"The building will explode in five minutes," the caller said. Staff found the words "price tag" had been sprayed on the building.
"We are looking at who could be behind this action," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said yesterday. Extremist settlers were among the suspects, he added.
Ms Ofran said the perpetrators were trying to intimidate activists. "The discourse in Israel has become truly dangerous," she told Haaretz newspaper.
In a statement, Peace Now said: "The responsibility for price tag attacks is [prime minister Binyamin] Netanyahu's. The incite¬ment and the harsh words of the coalition members in favour of illegal outposts and against the jus¬tice system and left-wing organisa¬tions is seeping into the ground and giving support to the price tag vandals."
The attack came as Mr Netan¬yahu announced he was sup¬porting two parliamentary Bills to curtail the foreign funding of Israeli human rights organisa¬tions. Groups targeted by the Bills have said the legislative move is an attempt to silence them and restrict their work.
A human rights worker who asked not to be named said: "There is a public atmosphere of trying to stop human rights activity. You see it in the Knesset [Israeli parliament] in these Bills and statements from politicians who claim these organisations are actually helping terror." - (Guardian service)