Yad Vashem hit with anti-Israel, anti-Semitic graffiti

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted on the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.

The slogans written in Hebrew — including "Hitler, thank you for the Holocaust," "If Hitler did not exist, the Zionists would have invented him," and "The war of the Zionist regime is not the war of the Jewish people" — were mostly found at the entrance to the museum and concentrated near the Warsaw Ghetto Square and the memorial to the deportees.

Police reportedly believe that haredi Orthodox Jewish extremists, who are opposed to the State of Israel, believing it should not be established until the arrival of the Messiah, are responsible for the crime, which occurred early Monday morning.

Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev called the vandalism a "blatant act of hatred of Israel and Zionism," and said it "crosses a red line."