Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial defaced

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

11 June 2012 Last updated at 11:13 GMT

Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial defaced

Vandals have defaced the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem with graffiti denouncing Zionism.

One of the slogans daubed in paint on the walls of the memorial read: "If Hitler had not existed, the Zionists would have invented him."

"This unprecedented act crosses a red line," Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said in a statement.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18394186

[oberliner]

1. Sounds like Neturei Karta

Iran's favorite anti-Zionist Jews.

[azurnoir]

4. Is Neturei Karta Sephardic?

Some of the graffiti, all written in Hebrew and daubed overnight on outside walls, accused Israel's founders of secretly encouraging the slaughter of Jews by the Nazis during World War Two to hasten the creation, in 1948, of Israel.

Vandals sprayed "Hitler, thanks for the Holocaust" and "If Hitler didn't exist the Zionists would have had to invent him," in Hebrew on the entrance to the museum, Israeli daily Ynet reported.

<snip>

In other areas, the vandals sprayed "Jews wake up - the Zionist regime is dangerous," and "Israel is the secular Auschwitz of the Sephardic Jewry."

In one area the graffiti was signed "The global Zionist mafia," and another with "the global haredi Jewry," Ynet reported.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=494289

[oberliner]

5. Quite the contrary

They do believe, however, that the creation of the State of Israel had a horrific impact of Sephardic Jews. Hence that line about Israel being the "secular Auschwitz of the Sephardic Jewry" seems to point in Neturei Karta's direction.

Here is an excerpt from the TTJ website that may prove helpful:

"The Zionists leaders embarked on an emergency campaign to bring all the Sephardic Jews to the country. In order to wean them quickly away from their old ways, they took children away from their parents and placed them in anti-religious collective farms. They made these children into believers in the new nationalism and slaves to the Zionist cause...

The children were brainwashed and raised as secular Zionists. Even before children immigrated, the Zionist Agency set up preparatory camps in which the children were taught atheism and beaten when they tried to keep Torah laws."

The graffiti definitely sounds like the sort of slogans the Neturei Karta/True Torah Jews folks would embrace.

[LeftishBrit]

10. No; they originated as a group of descendents of 19th century religious immigrants to Jerusalem

who were all (I think) of East Europaean origin.

They object to Zionism and the existence of the current state of Israel, because they think that the state should not have been established before the coming of the Messiah. Actually, what is normally called 'Neturei Karta' is an extreme subset of a rather larger, though still pretty tiny, group of anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews. The larger group of anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews ignore and where possible avoid the secular state - tend to live in their own enclaves; study the Torah assiduously; tend to have very large families; don't vote; don't do military service; and generally are very much like the small ultra-religious apolitical or even anti-political sects that exist in many faiths and countries. The more radical Neturei Karta sect takes anti-Zionism much further, and actively campaigns politically against the existence of the State of Israel.

[azurnoir]

12. Thanks for the solid info and that is exactly what I thought Neturei Karta's

origins were

[azurnoir]

2. Thanks when I first saw the headline I was amazed there were not more comments

but then I read the story at Ma'an which has pictures of the graffiti and saw it was in Hebrew then I read the story here (BBC) loads slowly and realized why, whodunit is all important, I guess

[oberliner]

6. The post was a little over two hours old when you were "amazed" there were not more comments

Incidentally, this is from the ADL:

ADL: Perpetrators Of 'Outrageous And Despicable' Graffiti Attack On Yad Vashem Must Be Brought To Justice

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed outrage and revulsion at anti-Jewish and anti-Israel graffiti sprayed on Yad Vashem, the world-renowned Holocaust memorial museum and education center in Jerusalem. Police suspect that the perpetrators of the vandalism were extremist ultra-Orthodox Jews.

"It was with a sense of profound sadness and revulsion that we woke up this morning to the news that Yad Vashem, this vitally important center for memory and research, was defiled with the most hateful anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric imaginable," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor. "The sick individuals responsible for this incident are morally bankrupt and must be brought to justice. If in fact they are extremist haredi Jews, as Israeli law enforcement suspects, then it is a particularly sad day for Israel and a reminder that Holocaust education is just as important for Jews as non-Jews."

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/IslME_62/6329_62.htm

[azurnoir]

7. Thanks I loved the "if" if they actually were ........

and I'll add one of my own if it had been provably Arabs we'd see much more comment 9 hours on - my comment makes #7

[oberliner]

8. If you say so

I think it's actually worse that devout Jews would write things like this. It makes me ill to think of it. The anti-Zionist Haredi organizations that I've mentioned, such as Neturei Karta and others, are simply despicable. I see that NK has officially denied involvement, so let's see how the investigation plays out.

Who do you think was behind the vandalism?

[azurnoir]

9. Maybe Haredi, maybe Ulpana settlers

I'm not too sure about Arabs who usually aren't too shy about things who knows you could be right about Neturei Karta

[Violet_Crumble]

11. I think it's very likely it's Neturei Karta or another Haredi group...

Defacing the museum is revolting, and they're not shy when it comes to doing sick things like that. Remember how they dressed up a child as a Holocaust victim and made a mockery of the Holocaust?

[azurnoir]

13. Yes I it is most likely a Haredi group of one sort or another

but the revolting display last winter involved more than 'a child' here are some pictures note the adults only wear a yellow star apparently they would rather make innocent children the messengers

[aranthus]

3. Stupid and evil.

Whoever it is.