Area residents walking in the downtown area or shopping at the Bethesda Farmers Market Sunday were confronted with antisemitic hate speech Sunday.
Graffiti was painted on Bethesda Elementary School’s fence on Arlington Road and along the sidewalk and on the crosswalk. The elementary school is host to a weekly farmers market.
In the early morning hours, vandals painted slogans, such as Free Gaza and Israel Rapes Kids.
Montgomery County Public Schools and Montgomery County Police Department were notified at 7:14 a.m. and immediately worked to remove the graffiti. Also removing the graffiti was the Bethesda Urban Partnership.
According to police, suspects spray painted the antisemitic phrases during the night on the parking lot area of the school and a nearby building in the 4900 block of Del Ray Avenue.
There are no suspect descriptions at this time, according to police.
The Police Commander from the 2nd District, which covers Bethesda, posted on social media that “several sites in the downtown area were marred by hate speech in the early morning.” Police asked anyone with information to contact Montgomery County Crime Solvers. montgomerycountymd.gov/pol/howd.
Guila Franklin Siegal, associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington called the graffiti “despicable.”
It is never acceptable to vandalize public property, but she called this incident worse, because it occurred at an elementary school and a place where families with young people were spending their Sunday morning.
Franklin Siegal was pleased, however, that many adults and children worked to rid the area of the “falsehoods,” she said.
“I think it is so revealing that so many parents and children came out and started scrubbing, cleaning up and spraying over” the hate speech, she said, adding, “This is not how parents and children should be spending their time.”
Huge thank you to our friends @BethesdaUP . Several sites in the downtown area were marred by hate speech in the early morning hours. BUP cleaned as quickly as possible. If you have information about this event-please contact : https://t.co/GOB9Q72RSH pic.twitter.com/eWQIelTBx8
— 2D Commander (@2dCommander) August 11, 2024
