(JTA) — Four Danish buses that had recently removed pro-Palestinian ads were destroyed in a suspected arson attack.
The buses were found burning early Friday morning at a Copenhagen bus station, BBC News reported. Danish police say a fifth bus was found with anti-Israel graffiti.
Police are investigating a possible link to the city’s transit department decision last week to remove from the buses ads that called for a boycott of Israeli goods. The ads were paid for by the Danish Palestinian Friendship Association, which according to BBC News works “to influence the Danish public and the Danish authorities to do more for the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”
The Danish bus company Movia had removed the ads, which showed two Palestinian women and the words “Our conscience is clean! We neither buy products from the Israeli settlements nor invest in the settlement industry.” Movia says it received nearly 100 complaints about the ads, most of them in English.
The head of the Danish Palestinian Friendship Association condemned the act in the Copenhagen Post.
“I hope it’s not someone with a Palestinian background that is behind this,” Fathi el Abed said. “It’s a criminal act and should be treated as such.”
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