Tel-Chai Nation

A terrible case of anti-semitic graffiti turned up at a Haredi school in Beersheba:

Hate-graffiti, including swastikas, was discovered at the entrance to an Orthodox educational institution in Beersheba on Wednesday morning. Employees of the institution alerted police, who opened an investigation.

Shas MK Eli Yishai said that the graffiti was “the direct result of incitement against haredim.

“The public atmosphere against the haredi public and Torah students has gotten out of control and actually encourages harassment of the ultra-Orthodox public,” he said Yishai called on police to find the perpetrators and warned politicians that their behavior had consequences.

Now it's definitely abominable this had to happen. But was it really the result of anti-Haredi incitement, as Yishai wants to see it? As this report says:

However, Be'er Sheva synagogues and schools, including those that are not Haredi, have frequently been the targets of anti-Semites. Several thousand non-Jews of Russian origin live in the city.

For all we know, it could've been these non-Jewish Russians who committed the horrific crime. It could've even been Muslims. It's regrettable Yishai is taking such a narrow, self-interested focus that obscures the wider crisis. I hope the perpetrators are caught, but Shas should bear in mind that it's not just people who allegedly hate Haredis who could've pulled sick acts like this.

Labels: anti-semitism, haredi corruption, immigration, islam, Israel, military, Russia