A joint Arab-Jewish school in Jerusalem went up in flames and was vandalized by anti-Arab graffiti in a suspected arson and hate crime case on Saturday night.
An initial investigation showed that the fire was set intentionally from inside the school, Israel Police reported.
Firefighter forces were called to the Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School, and were working to put out the fire and prevent its spread to the rest of the school’s facilities. Sources say the fire was under control and no injuries were reported.
The graffiti found on the school’s walls read slogans such as “you can’t coexist with a cancer,” “Kahane was right” “enough with assimilation,” and “death to Arabs.”
An investigation has been opened to determine the circumstance of the fire and it’s connection to the graffiti on site.
The source of the flames was found to have stemmed form the preschool of the bilingual Hebrew-Arabic facility in Jerusalem’s southwest Pat neighborhood.
Jerusalem District Commander Maj.-Gen. Moshe Edery stated that the incident was serious and instructed investigators to work to identify and arrest any suspects.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat came out with harsh words against extremists in light of the foul play suspected at the school and vowed to return calm to the capital.
“Pyromaniacs and those who disrupt order cannot take the law into their own hand to disrupt the routine of our lives,” he said.
“This is a violent, criminal and despicable incident aimed to injure and undermine the foundations of Israeli democracy,” Education Minister Shai Piron said in a statement on Saturday night.
“The fact that this was an arson attack on an educational framework that advocates coexistence severely damages the fabric of relations between Jews and Arabs. The case is even more severe due to the fact that the perpetrators chose to hit the soft underbelly of society, in a preschool, in which young and naive children study,” he said.
The education minister further called on police to “act immediately without delay to bring justice these heinous criminals.”
