Last update - 00:00 03/07/2007
Vandals daub graffiti on graves of Tel Aviv Mayor's parents
By Igal Hai, Haaretz Correspondent
Unknown vandals defaced the graves' of the parents of Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Holdai on Tuesday, spraying them with graffiti blasting the municipality's decision to raze Hapoel Tel Aviv's Osishkin basketball auditorium.
Slogans smeared on the tombstones read "those who touch Oshishkin will die," "Ron Holdai is next in line," and "watch out for gate 5," referring to the section where the team's hardcore supporters sit.
Tel Aviv's Mayor responded to the defacement by saying the blood of public officials had been let.
"When they started a fire next to my home, and threw firecrackers at my home, there was no condemnation," Holdai said. "My family and I are strong. We will clean the graves and go back to our daily routine."
He addressed the decision to demolish Osishkin, saying it was located in park area and in the middle of a residential zone.
"The press could not restrain themselves from saying Holdai is a real estate shark, while they knew Osishkin is designated to become a park," Holdai added. "One must show public responsibility, learn the facts, report them and not fan flames and give legitimization to violence that is part of public discourse in Israel."
Environmentalist groups condemned the vandalism of the graves.
"This is crossing the lines and breaking the rules of democracy that we must always preserve," Anat Barkai-Nevo of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel wrote.