Jerusalem’s Roman Catholic Church has expressed alarm over threats to Christians scrawled by suspected Jewish extremists on church property in the Holy Land.

In an incident, known as ‘price-tagging’, “Death to Arabs and Christians and all those who hate Israel” was written in Hebrew on an outer column of the Office of the Assembly of Bishops at the Notre Dame Center in East Jerusalem last week.

The frequency of ‘price tagging’ has risen sharply over the past month. The term is used by ultranationalist Jews who want to make the government ‘pay’ for any restrictions on Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. Fourteen incidents have been reported this year.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that Israeli security services fear that Jewish radicals might carry out a major hate crime against the Christian population or institutions to drum up media attention during the Pope’s upcoming visit to Israel.

Israeli reports claim police districts have been ordered to produce security plans to protect Christian sites and gather intelligence on Jewish extremist activities.

Source: Reuters