Vilnius' chief rabbi believes those who vandalized the city's new Jewish cemetery last weekend did so as an attempt to silence the rabbi's objection to a real-estate project planned for the premises of the Ancient Jewish Cemetery.

Police blame young vandals for the smashing of 12 of the cemetary's headstones in the Lithuanian capital.

Vilnius Chief Rabbi Haim Burstein and the Jewish community have opposed the real-estate project since the municipality first approved it several years ago.

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Their efforts to prevent the construction failed last week, as the first excavations began. "I rushed over to the cemetery as soon as I heard they were digging there," Burstein told Haaretz on Thursday.

"I demanded they stop because there were still human remains in the ground. The security guard closed the iron gate on me and gave me a concussion," he said. He was treated in hospital, and filed a police complaint against the construction company upon his release.

He wrote Knesset MKs Avraham Ravitz and Reuven Rivlin, requesting they raise the issue for discussion. He went on to address other parties who might help him halt the construction.

A few days later, at the city's new Jewish cemetery, he found 12 tombstones had been smashed. He believes the action was a warning for him to desist from his efforts to halt the real-estate project.

The Conference of European Rabbis, attended by all European chief rabbis, condemned the incident and called on the Lithuanian government to prevent such future acts.

By sheer coincidence, the conference was scheduled to convene in Vilnius this week. Burstein sought to bring the issue to the attention of the Lithuanian prime minister, Gediminas Kirkilas, during his scheduled appearance at the conference. However, Kirkilas' office informed the conference on Thursday that the prime minister would not be attending.

Over the past year, Vilnius' new Jewish cemetery has been vandalized several times. The city is now home to some 4,000 Jews. Most immigrated to Lithuania after World War II, after virtually all of Lithunia's 250,000 strong Jewish community was murdered by the Nazis.