Jewish memorial book in Brighton desecrated with faeces

Appalling incident is the latest act of vandalism at the shrine to victims of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel

A Brighton and Hove memorial for those murdered and taken hostage in the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel has been vandalised with faeces.

Attendees at the nightly vigil at Palmeira Square were confronted with the excrement on Sunday 22nd June, the day that the bodies of three Israeli hostages were recovered from Gaza. The faeces was deliberately left near the photo of Ofra Keidar (71) – one of the hostages whose remains were returned.

She was murdered while out for a morning walk on 7 October. Ofra’s husband, Sami, who had Parkinson’s disease, was killed in their home while sitting on the sofa.

Another of the recovered hostages was Shay Levinson, whose great-aunt, Doris Levinson, is a well-known member of the Brighton & Hove community. Doris was recently honoured with a British Empire Medal (BEM) for her lifelong service to Jewish and interfaith charities and to the community in Sussex.

The Palmeira Memorial Group, which manages the memorial and conducts daily services every evening at the site dedicated each service to a different victim of the October 7th atrocities, said: “This is a new low. On the very day a grieving local family finally received news of their loved one, someone carried out an act of vulgar and hateful desecration. It is utterly despicable. We urge anyone who may have seen or heard anything to come forward. Hate crimes like this cannot go unanswered.”