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'Death to Jews' written on graves
Photo: Yonat Atlas

Grave desecrator says he 'hates blacks'

Man tells police hatred for Ethiopian immigrants led him to vandalize graves at Beersheba cemetery

Beersheba Police arrested on Saturday a 58-year old woman and her 33-year old son on suspicion that they are the perpetrators of a recent wave of vandalism that has swept the city's cemetery.

 

On Sunday the son admitted to the allegations against him, and said he had been desecrating graves for years because he "hates blacks".  


Violated gravesite of Gabriel Dwait (Photo: Herzl Yosef)

 

The two were arrested following an ambush staged by officers at the cemetery, during which the man was caught red-handed kicking a gravestone in an attempt to break it. He admitted during questioning to another eight such cases of vandalism.

 

Among the gravestones he admitted to desecrating was that of Ethiopian immigrant Gabriel Dwait, an Israeli citizen whose body was retrieved from Lebanon two years ago.

 

Graffiti found on the gravestone said, in Russian, "Death to Jews" and "Petrol 36", the name of a neo-Nazi group recently apprehended in central Israel.

 

The man told police he had heard the name of the group on television, and officers do not suspect he has ties with it. To their questions he answered simply, "I just hate blacks."

 

As to other gravestones he violated, which belong to Jews who are not Ethiopian immigrants, the man explained that he was a heavy drinker and was often inebriated while visiting his grandmother's grave at the cemetery. He said the alcohol and depression led him to commit the acts.

 

"He said he was in a bad mood," said the deputy commander of the Beersheba police station, Chief-Superintendant Avshalom Almaliach. "We found a number of vodka bottles at his grandmother's grave."

 

Almaliach added that the man's mother witnessed a number of her son's crimes, but that she had not been an accomplice to them. However, he said, the investigation against her was ongoing. "We are checking a few other cases of vandalism in the city," he said.

 


פרסום ראשון: 07.04.10, 22:58
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