A fire broke out early Thursday morning in a Greek Orthodox seminary in Jerusalem in what police suspect may be a hate crime. No one was injured.
The fire started at approximately 4am in the bathrooms of the seminary.
It was hardly the first case of vandalism against Christian sites.
Two months ago police arrested a 21-year-old Jewish man who had allegedly damaged a cross and sculpture in the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem.
Before Pope Francis arrived in Israel last May, vandals also spray painted a Catholic church with anti-Christian graffiti.
On Wednesday morning, a mosque in a village near Bethlehem was set alight and anti-Arab graffiti was sprayed on its walls.
Worshipers arriving for prayers at the mosque in Jab’a, which lies to the west of Bethlehem, discovered the fire and quickly put it out. The carpeting inside and the walls of the building were damaged but there were no reports of injuries.
Eyewitnesses said the offensive graffiti, written in Hebrew, called for revenge attacks against Arabs and Muslims.
Local Palestinians believe the arson attack was the work of Jewish settlers.
By Judah Ari Gross
