Vandals Miffed At Not Being Praised For Waiting Till School Empty

Jerusalem, December 6 – The youths who sprayed threatening and racist graffiti on the walls of a mixed Jewish and Arab school voiced frustration today that they have attracted only criticism instead of commendation for acting only when no one was at the site.

The small group of vandals who perpetrated an alleged “price tag” attack on the bilingual and cross-cultural school in Jerusalem told reporters Saturday that they had hoped the lengths to which they went in order to avoid encountering and harming actual people would demonstrate their tolerance and concern for Arabs, as opposed to those who actually attack their foes. Instead, say the youths, media and public treatment of the episode has been uniformly negative.

The gang leader, who gave his name only as G, said he and his friends aimed to drive a wedge between the Jewish and Arab students at the school, an institution that specifically fosters coexistence and attracts those who aim to cultivate or improve that coexistence. With slogans denigrating such “assimilation,” the graffiti badmouthed such efforts and criticized the school’s orientation as leading to intermarriage and promoting “coexistence with a cancer.” However, G insisted he and his cohorts are considerate, tolerant people.

“We don’t have anything against anyone – we just wanted to get our message across to the people who need it most, and alert them to the dangerous consequences if they don’t listen” he explained. “So we sneaked in when nobody was there and delivered it. If we wanted to harm anyone, believe me, we could have come when school was in session and done just that,” not that he was threatening anyone.

“It took a good bit of planning to get in there and apply our graffiti without anyone confronting us, which would have forced us to resort to violence,” agreed H, a member of the group. “But all we get is grief from commentators and politicians who don’t appreciate our efforts to avoid that violence when we engage in incitement, unlike a certain Palestinian president whose  Fatah organization glorifies and participates in violence.”

M, who joined the group specifically to participate in the school vandalism, was especially galled by what he called the hypocrisy of the media and government surrounding the episode. “Everyone from the Prime Minister on down blasts the Palestinians for nonstop incitement to violence against Jews, while both Israeli and international media go on about incitement ‘on both sides’ – well, our incitement is light years less violent than theirs, and I wish people appreciated that more.”

G told reporters that the group plans several more such incidents to help drive home the difference between the two sides’ rhetoric. “We’re thinking of maybe smashing or defacing a few gravestones at the old Muslim cemetery in Mamilla,” a neighborhood just outside the Old City, abutting Independence Park, he said. “That would clearly show that we have lines we won’t cross.”