BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

05/01/2007

Belarus To Investigate Anti-Semitic Grafitti On On Israel Building

The Belarusian government on Friday ordered an investigation into defacement of an Israeli cultural centre, nearly two months the swastikas first appeared, the Belapan news agency reported.

The prosecutor-general agreed to conduct a criminal investigation into the anti-Semetic drawings, after talks with Israeli diplomats, said Igal Koifman, an embassy representative.

Unknown persons on the night of November 11 used spray paint to draw a swastika and the slogan "Beat the Jews!" on an exterior wall of the Israeli Cultural Centre, in Minsk.

The Israeli government finances the centre, which is located in a working-class district of the Belarusian capital.

More drawings calling for attacks against Jews, and other Neo-Nazi slogans appeared the next night on walls of the building the next night, despite a 24-hour police guard of the premises.

Anti-Semitic leaflets also were scattered at a Minsk Holocaust Memorial the same evening, in a central district of the city.

Local police rejected complaints by workers at the cultural centre of having been targeted for anti-Semitic attacks, on grounds the cultural centre had suffered nothing more than minor property damage, and no centre staff had been directly threatened.

Talks between representatives of the central Belarusian government, and the Israeli embassy, produced an agreement Belarusian police will consider the incident an anti-Semitic attack.

The maximum Belarusian penalty for making a public call for attacks against an ethnic group, including by grafitti, is three months in jail and a fine, the report said.

2007 DPA

Source:

http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_7621-Belarus-To-Investigate-Anti-Semitic-Grafitti-On-On-Israel-Building.html