Police Investigate Potential Hate Crime At Palestine House
Posted November 26, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Peel Police are investigating a possible hate crime Sunday, after vandals left their mark on Mississauga’s Palestine House cultural centre.
Worshippers found a spray-painted Star of David and a bizarre message when they arrived Sunday morning at the building near Mavis and Burnhamthorpe.
The message said: “Jew + Nazi equals Palestine.” Another Star of David was spray-painted near the building’s entrance.
Immediate reactions were as expected: shock and disgust tonight in Mississauga after a vandal defaced the cultural centre, but despite the outrage police aren’t quite ready to call it a hate crime.
“We are swaying towards the fact that it’s a regular mischief occurrence rather than a hate crime because we can’t really tie any specific political reference to what was said,” said Peel Police Const. Pete Brandwood.
Palestine House president Farid Ayad didn’t feel that way when he saw the message as he pulled into the parking lot Sunday morning.
“I was shocked to see that, and then instantly the security factor came in,” said Ayad.
“Maybe someone later on will escalate this … it doesn’t make sense.”
But sense or no sense, Arab youths that congregated at the centre for a discussion on community issues in the morning were upset by what they found.
Painters took to covering the graffiti Sunday afternoon, but some that frequent the centre say the mark left from the incident won’t wash off so easily.
“People are pretty disturbed by the fact that people would actually come here and vandalize our building in the middle of the night,” said Hazem Jamjoum.
Police continue to investigate the incident. The maximum penalty for mischief is 10 years in jail.
