Source: The Boston Herald
Wire Service: AP
http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=35884
On July 16, 2004 the Associated Press reported, "Vandals smashed historic headstones and cut a swastika into a lawn at a Jewish cemetery overnight, authorities said Friday. The attack came just hours after two Israeli men were imprisoned for passport fraud and labelled spies by the New Zealand government. Wellington Botanic Gardens manager David Sole said the Jewish section of Bolton St. cemetery near the center of the New Zealand capital was a sea of broken marble and overturned tombstones when he visited Friday morning. 'People are speculating the attack may have been sparked by the two Israeli men and the passport case,' a council spokesman said, speaking on usual condition of anonymity. Jewish Council President David Zwartz said there was a direct connection between the case and 'people here feeling they can take it out on Jews. It seems to me that it's Israel-bashing one day, Jew bashing the next day,' he told National Radio. Rabbi Antony Lipman said the desecration on the graves, some of them 100 years old, had shocked New Zealand's Jewish community. 'We hope Wellington is not going the way of some other communities in the world, where this has unfortunately become a frequent occurrence,' he said."