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A Jewish cemetery in a Chicago suburb has been vandalized with swastikas on the headstones, and graffiti reading: ‘Kanye was rite’.
Police were called to Am Echod Jewish cemetery in Waukegan, Illinois – 40 miles north of downtown Chicago – on Monday morning.
They found that 16 large headstones had been spray-painted in red, and an additional 23 headstones were also defaced with ‘non-specific’ spray-painted graffiti.
The graffiti referenced the Chicago-raised rapper, who in the last month has caused outrage with his antisemitic remarks.Â
The vandal or vandals have not yet been arrested.
Ann Taylor, the mayor of Waukegan, a working-class industrial city of 89,000 largely Hispanic people, said she was shocked by the defacing of the graves.
Taylor said she was ‘deeply disturbed and angered by the hateful imagery found spray-painted on headstones.’
Thirty nine headstones in the northern Chicago suburb were defaced over the weekend
One of the headstones was vandalized with the words ‘Kanye was rite’
The red spray paint was highly visible on Monday morning, when the police were called
Waukegan police are still hunting for whoever carried out the attack
The vandals did not even spare the headstones partially covered in the early snow
Waukegan’s mayor said she was ‘deeply disturbed and angered by the hateful imagery’
Swastikas were plastered over the headstones in a ‘reprehensible’ act of hate
West, seen on October 21, has in the last month spouted a series of antisemitic tropes
She added: ‘Hate does not have a home in Waukegan; when such incidents occur, our marginalized neighbors are victimized, and our entire community suffers.
‘I hope our officers promptly locate the perpetrators of this despicable act and hold them accountable, and I offer my full support to those directly impacted by this vandalism.’
J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, tweeted: ‘I stand with Mayor Ann Taylor in condemning this evil act, and offer the state’s full support in the pursuit of justice. Officials at Illinois State Police are in communication with city leaders.’
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said it was ‘reprehensible’.
‘We are disgusted by this act of antisemitism. It must be investigated as a hate crime & we’re in touch with synagogue leadership & law enforcement,’ they said.
‘The desecration of these stones is reprehensible & we all must speak out in the face of this attack.’
The activist group Stop Antisemitism noted the link to the local rapper.
”Kanye is Rite’ graffiti found spray painted in red, appearing like blood, on Jewish tombstones at a cemetery in Chicago.
‘We have no words for this depravity and evil.’
West, who was born in Atlanta but moved to Chicago aged three, has spent the past month spreading antisemitic tropes.
On October 9 he tweeted that he was going to go ‘death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,’ referring to the military readiness condition ‘DEFCON.’
‘I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,’ the rapper wrote, in a now-deleted tweet.
‘The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.’
West was challenged to apologize for his rhetoric, but refused repeatedly to back down.
West is pictured in Paris in October, after his controversial fashion show in which he paraded in a t-shirt with the words ‘White Lives Matter’Â
West on October 9 promised to ‘go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE’
His ex-wife Kim Kardashian condemned the rhetoric Â
A widely-circulated photo shows a group of people giving a Nazi salute on the 405 freeway overpass in Los Angeles with a sign reading ‘Kanye is right about the Jews’
In response, companies and sponsors abandoned him, and the school he founded was forced to shut when teachers quit.
West, 45, claimed he lost $2 billion in one day.
His hateful words resonated with his fans, however – and West continued to claim that Jewish people controlled the media, politics and finance.
In Los Angeles, a group of emboldened antisemites hung a ‘Kanye is right about the Jews’ banner over an interstate on October 22, and on October 30 similar words were projected at a college football stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.
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