Unknown vandals spray-painted Nazi swastikas, Christian crosses and epithets on walls and asphalt roads at the “caravilla” site of Nitzan in southern Israel overnight Thursday.
“On my way to the prayer I noticed two swastikas spray painted on the road,” Chaim Klein, a resident of Nitzan, told Arutz Sheva. “Inside one of them was the word 'Nazis.' Later, I saw two more swastikas spray painted on the wall of the community's security room.
"I was really hurt,” he said. “I am the second generation to Holocaust survivors, and this is simply outrageous.”
Klein said that when he informed other worshipers at the synagogue of the graffiti, some said it could have been a child's prank. “I do not think it was children,” he said. “They could spray paint all kinds of things but not a swastika. If a child did carry out an act of mischief like this it should be taken care of. Children need to know what the Holocaust is and what Nazism is... I truly hope that it was not children.”
"I think that it is people from outside and it must be taken care of,” he said. “We must not remain silent about this incident.”
Incidents of neo-Nazi violence and vandalism were unheard of in Israel until recent years. They are largely attributed to the non-Jewish element among immigrants who came to Israel from Russia.