Post by michele cryer on Jun 11, 2005 2:13:24 GMT
URGENT - PROTEST AT DESECRATION OF JEWISH CEMETERY
More than a hundred graves in the Jewish Cemetery in North Manchester have been vandalised.
Greater Manchester police confirmed tonight (Thursday) their opinion that this was a racist attack.
Unite Against Fascism, Bury, have called a vigil at the gates of the cemetery to show solidarity with the Jewish community and to protest at this outrage - this Sunday (12th June) at 12 noon. Bodies backing the protest include Unite Against Fascism Manchester and Manchester Trades Union Council.
Please join the protest vigil if you can. Meet at 12 noon outside the cemetery, Butterstile Lane, Prestwich, near the junction with Hilton Lane and Rainsough Brow.
******
The following is taken from the BBC news website, Thursday 9th June 2005
Racist gang attack Jewish graves
A Jewish cemetery in Greater Manchester has been vandalised in what police say is a racially motivated attack.
About 100 headstones and graves were damaged at Rainsough Cemetery in Prestwich, causing damage put at nearly £150,000.
The damage was discovered on Thursday and reported to police.
Det Insp Simon Collier, from Greater Manchester Police, said: "I find it hard to believe that people could commit such a heartless offence."
Pushed over
"Each grave damaged has Hebrew inscriptions on it, I think it is a racist incident," he added.
"It is disgusting that someone could commit a crime of such a thoughtless and disrespectful nature in a place where people come to grieve and mourn the loss of their loved ones.
"Acts like these cause great emotional distress to friends and relatives, not to mention the financial cost which clearing the cemetery and repairing the gravestones is likely to incur."
Louis Rapaport, president of the Jewish Representatives Council for Greater Manchester, believes it was a planned operation.
"To do so much damage must have taken some time," he said, adding that the extent of the damage indicated those who carried it out were "more than a few casual louts".
Police said several items were recovered from the scene for examination but refused to say what they were.
It the third serious attack at the cemetery in three years.
In January 2002 three youths were convicted of damaging headstones and in August 2003, 20 gravestones were pushed over in an attack treated by police at the time as racially motivated.
Sorry...this should also appear in Political events.
More than a hundred graves in the Jewish Cemetery in North Manchester have been vandalised.
Greater Manchester police confirmed tonight (Thursday) their opinion that this was a racist attack.
Unite Against Fascism, Bury, have called a vigil at the gates of the cemetery to show solidarity with the Jewish community and to protest at this outrage - this Sunday (12th June) at 12 noon. Bodies backing the protest include Unite Against Fascism Manchester and Manchester Trades Union Council.
Please join the protest vigil if you can. Meet at 12 noon outside the cemetery, Butterstile Lane, Prestwich, near the junction with Hilton Lane and Rainsough Brow.
******
The following is taken from the BBC news website, Thursday 9th June 2005
Racist gang attack Jewish graves
A Jewish cemetery in Greater Manchester has been vandalised in what police say is a racially motivated attack.
About 100 headstones and graves were damaged at Rainsough Cemetery in Prestwich, causing damage put at nearly £150,000.
The damage was discovered on Thursday and reported to police.
Det Insp Simon Collier, from Greater Manchester Police, said: "I find it hard to believe that people could commit such a heartless offence."
Pushed over
"Each grave damaged has Hebrew inscriptions on it, I think it is a racist incident," he added.
"It is disgusting that someone could commit a crime of such a thoughtless and disrespectful nature in a place where people come to grieve and mourn the loss of their loved ones.
"Acts like these cause great emotional distress to friends and relatives, not to mention the financial cost which clearing the cemetery and repairing the gravestones is likely to incur."
Louis Rapaport, president of the Jewish Representatives Council for Greater Manchester, believes it was a planned operation.
"To do so much damage must have taken some time," he said, adding that the extent of the damage indicated those who carried it out were "more than a few casual louts".
Police said several items were recovered from the scene for examination but refused to say what they were.
It the third serious attack at the cemetery in three years.
In January 2002 three youths were convicted of damaging headstones and in August 2003, 20 gravestones were pushed over in an attack treated by police at the time as racially motivated.
Sorry...this should also appear in Political events.