Christian village vandalised by Israeli group

An Arab-Israeli Christian woman holds a cross during a protest near the Church of the Multiplication at Tabgha, on the shores on the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, on 21 June 2015, following a suspected arson attack which took place earlier in the week. [GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images]

The only predominantly Maronite-Christian village of Jish in Upper Galilee was vandalised on Wednesday night and the tyres of 40 vehicles were slashed.

Witnesses said the graffiti on the walls was signed with “Price Tag” and read: “Only non-Jews should be evacuated from our land.”

Israeli police started searching for the perpetrators and said it would launch an inquiry into the incident. Head of Jish Municipal Council Elias Elias denounced the incident.

Primary information showed that there are three or four Israeli settlers moving from village to village to carry out such actions. Arab residents said that the Israeli police don’t do enough to deter them.

Elias said he would call for the police to hold the perpetrators accountable for their actions and to compensate the residents. “We will not fear them,” he said, “we will remain here forever.”

The spokesperson for the Islamic movement in Israel, Lawyer Zahi Nojidat, denounced the “wild attack of the stray settlers on the properties of Jish residents.”

He added: “It is clear that they are trying to terrorise our people.” He blamed the government for these actions which, he said, they started to spread all over the country.

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.