An integrated Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem has been vandalised by suspected Jewish extremists who set fire to a classroom.
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It happened late on Saturday at the Hand-in-Hand school where Palestinian and Israeli children study together in Arabic and Hebrew.
“Death to Arabs” read part of the graffiti scrawled on walls.
“Whoever hurts this type of coexistence no longer only hurts Arabs but Jews as well, hurts an idea and an ideal that has existed for 15 years”, said Hatem Matar, Head of the Parent Teachers’ Association. “This is very sad but at the same time I think our community’s embrace yesterday empowers us”.
Speaking on Sunday the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned the attack on the school.
“We are making great efforts to restore peace and quiet to Jerusalem. Of course we will not tolerate attacks from any side and we will not tolerate setting fire to the Jewish-Arab school as we saw last night”
Netanyahu promised to act decisively and with unity.
Sunday is the first day of the working week in Israel and as children arrived to the smell of smoke still in the air, police forensic teams were also arriving to gather evidence.