Vandals burnt the door of a Catholic monastery in central Israel early on Tuesday and scrawled anti-Christian graffiti in an apparent “price tag” hate crime, Israeli police and witnesses said.
“A wooden door of the convent was burnt by unidentified vandals and the slogan ‘Jesus is a monkey’ was sprayed on the walls” of the Trappist monastery in Latrun, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP. The Trappist abbey of Latrun, located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is one of the most famous monastic sites of the Holy Land. In addition to the anti-Christian graffiti, the words “mutual guarantee” as well as “Ramat Migron” and “Maoz Esther” were spray-painted in orange on the walls of the monastery. Maoz Esther and Ramat Migron are wildcat settlement outposts in the West Bank. Israeli police destroyed two structures in Ramat Migron last week.
Israel considers settlement outposts built without government approval to be illegal and often sends security personnel to demolish them. They usually consist of little more than a few trailers.