Death threats sprayed on Israel peace activist home

Death threats were spray painted outside the Jerusalem home of a prominent Israeli anti-settlement activist working for Peace Now, police said on Monday, in the third attack on her home in 10 months. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the attack, believed to be the work of right-wing extremists, targeted the home of Peace Now's Hagit Ofran. "Police have launched an investigation after graffiti was sprayed at the entrance of the Jerusalem home of one of the representatives of Peace Now," Rosenfeld said. Among the slogans scrawled outside her home were the words: "Hagit Ofran: Rest in peace," and "Kahane was right," a reference to Meir Kahane, the late founder of an extremist anti-Arab Jewish movement. "It is not clear who is behind this incident. The police are searching the area for suspects," Rosenfeld said. Ofran's home was targeted twice last autumn with threatening graffiti scrawled on her apartment in September and November. The NGO's director and its Jerusalem offices have also been targeted with graffiti, bomb hoaxes and death threats several times over the past nine months. "This was the third time they have done something like this within months," Ofran told AFP, saying she believed extremist Jewish settlers were behind the move. "The settlers are trying to scare us but we are not afraid. The problem is that the government is afraid of them and is doing whatever they want." Peace Now, which works to end Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories and opposes settlement construction, has been the frequent target of right-wing activists angered by its work. Hardline settlers and their supporters have adopted what they call a "price tag" policy under which they stage attacks in response to government moves against illegal settlement outposts. Such hate crimes mostly tend to be directed at Palestinians and their property, but over the past year they have also targeted Israeli peace activists and even in some cases the security forces.