JERUSALEM (JTA) — A monastery in Jerusalem was vandalized for the second time this year in an apparent price tag attack.
Graffiti reading "Victory for the Maccabees," "Happy Chanukah" and "price tag" were spray-painted on the walls of the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem. Three tires on a car parked near the building were slashed and graffiti spray painted on it as well.
A car was also set on fire in a Palestinian village near Ramallah in the West Bank, with the words "price tag" spray painted nearby.
Both incidents occurred sometime on Tuesday night.
"Price tag" refers to the strategy that Jewish extremists have adopted to exact a price in attacks on Palestinians and Arabs in retribution for settlement freezes and demolitions, or for Palestinian attacks on Jews.
Police are investigating the incidents.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the vandals would be brought to justice.
"The Jewish values according to which we were raised and according to which we raise our children reject outright such behavior. Freedom of worship for all religions will be upheld in Israel and we will bring to justice these contemptible beings who perpetrated this crime," Netanyahu said in a statement.
The 11th-century Monastery of the Cross was also the victim of a price tag attack in February. It is the fifth attack on a Christian site this year.
