It all began with this Facebook post:
Post about stickers on a tourist sign
A January 7 Facebook post about a number of stickers that covered Arabic writing on a Mt. Zion vista.
Later in January, hateful graffiti was sprayed on the Dormition Abbey, the Armenian Cemetery and the Greek Seminary. The Municipality cleaned up that graffiti immediately, but left other racist graffiti and stickers that had been placed there at different periods. Some of them even covered up signs to important Christian or Muslim tourist sites or routes.
Vandalized sign
Windows to Mt. Zion volunteers (this is our project, together with Search for Common Ground and support from USIP – read more about it here) rose to the task, and since then has been reporting these nuisances to the Municipality. Thanks to these reports and the dedicated work of our regional supervisor, the stickers and graffiti were cleaned up.
Clean signs
Mt. Zion is now sticker-free! But our volunteers are still around, in case more hateful stickers are being seen on this lovely and sensitive site!
