Jerusalem’s Ammunition Hill museum and memorial were vandalized Sunday night with anti-Zionist slogans, two days before Israel’s Memorial Day.
“Gunter Grass was right” and “lousy Zionists” were spray painted on the famous Six Day War battle site, as well as epithets against President Shimon Peres and Interior Minister Eli Yishai.
The battle of Ammunition Hill, hard fought in trenches and ultimately coming to serve as a symbol of Israeli bravery and yearning for Jerusalem, cost the lives of 36 Israeli soldiers. Jordan lost 71 soldiers in the battle.
Site manager Katri Maoz told Army Radio that there was also an attempt to burn the large Israeli flag flown at the site. A Biblical verse engraved in the stone at the Memorial of the Sons, a memorial to soldiers who fell in other battles who were the children of soldiers who had fought at Ammunition Hill, was painted over in black.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat condemned the attack and commissioned a special municipal team to clean the site in time for Wednesday’s Memorial Day ceremonies.