JERUSALEM, Feb 14: Suspected Jewish extremists scrawled anti-Arab graffiti on the headstones in an ancient Muslim cemetery in west Jerusalem, police and witnesses said on Thursday.

“The words ‘price tag’ and Stars of David were scrawled on around a dozen tombs in the Muslim cemetery in Mamilla, central Jerusalem,” a police spokeswoman said, adding that an inquiry had been opened.

Price tag is a euphemism for hate crimes carried out by Israeli extremists which generally target Palestinians or Arabs and their property. Such incident often take place in retaliation for the Israeli government’s moves to dismantle unauthorised settler outposts, with Thursday’s vandalism apparently linked to the removal of six caravans from the Maale Rehavam outpost in the southern West Bank a day earlier. The move sparked angry protests by settlers and their supporters in and around Jerusalem.

There have been several attacks on Mamilla graveyard, known in Arabic as Ma’man Allah cemetery, which dates from the 12th century and is the resting place of several Sufi saints.

Descendants of those interred in the west Jerusalem cemetery say it also houses the remains of soldiers and officials of the legendary Salahuddin Ayubi.—AFP