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Last update - 00:00 04/10/2007

Report: Vandals daub swastikas on walls of synagogue in Haifa

By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

Vandals scrawled Nazi swastikas on the wall of a Haifa synagogue early Thursday, Israel Radio reported.

According to the radio, congregants who arrived for morning services discovered the swastikas, along with a drawing of a nude woman.

Haifa Police are investigating the incident.

On Wednesday, graffiti depicting a Nazi swastika and Adolf Hitler was found on the wall of an elementary school in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon.

In recent weeks, there have been a number of instances of anti-Semitic graffiti being drawn in various locations in Haifa.

Haifa Police Chief Dudu Ben-Atia said last week that police suspect the vandalism was carried out by a neo-Nazi cell in Haifa, although he added that these suspicions have not yet been confirmed.

He said police are investigating all leads, including the possibility that the act was implemented by a group "seeking attention."

Haifa police detectives have arrested a local 19-year-old man suspected of burning down a sukkah (ceremonial hut) built next to a Haifa synagogue and drawing a swastika on the site last week.

It is unclear, however, whether there is any connection between that incident and the other cases of anti-Semitism in the city.

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