Justice Minister Tzipi Livni condemned on Sunday night the incident in which a synagogue in Tel Aviv was vandalized with graffiti.

The graffiti read “In a place where the Jewish State Bill will be legislated, books will be burned.” The vandals left a pile of burned books next to the wall that bore the graffiti. The books are not sacred texts.

The attack took place at the Tel Aviv International Synagogue, where Rabbi Ariel Konstantyn of the Orthodox Zionist Tzohar Rabbis organization serves as rabbi.

“I just spoke with Rabbi Konstantyn of the Tel Aviv synagogue where the walls were sprayed with graffiti and books were burned. The rabbi spoke painfully about the crime in the synagogue which works to bring people together,” wrote Livni on her Facebook page.

“Burning books – religious books or otherwise – is a violent and criminal vandalism whose perpetrators must be captured, prosecuted and punished severely,” she added.

Rabbi Konstantyn said earlier that the incident has been referred to the police but he views it as a “clear act of anti-Semitism.” According to the rabbi, the timing of the attack and the explicit graffiti seem to indicate that this was perpetrated by radical left-wing activists.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Religious Services, Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home), called on those who spoke out in numbers against Saturday’s arson on a dual Arabic-Hebrew language kindergarten school in Jerusalem to condemn the synagogue vandalism in Tel Aviv as well. Most of those who condemned the arson in Jerusalem were leftists who blamed the government and the Jewish State Law for the arson.

“This morning a slew of politicians were condemning the arson of the bilingual school in Jerusalem, but tonight there was nearly no one to be found to condemn the burning of the synagogue. This is proof that we forgot that we are first and foremost a Jewish state and the importance of the Jewish State Law,” he said.

“I would expect all those who were quick to condemn the burning of the school in Jerusalem to also do so with the vandalism of the synagogue in Tel Aviv,” added Rabbi Ben-Dahan. 

He was backed by Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home), who condemned the vandalism at the Tel Aviv synagogue and urged others to do so as well.

“Harming a synagogue is a moral and ethical low by extremists who try to impose their views by force and harm something with a distinct Jewish character. It is the duty of all of us to strongly condemn the damage to the synagogue, just as the arsonists of the bilingual school were condemned. The police and security forces must take extreme action against those responsible and whoever did this should be severely punished,” said Ariel.