Lisbon Jewish monument, Brussels nativity scene defaced

The slogan “Free Palestine” on Saturday was spray-painted in red on a nativity scene in the Grand-Place of Brussels, one of the Belgian capital’s main squares and tourist attractions.

In a separate incident last week, unidentified individuals defaced a well-known monument to Jewish victims of an Inquisition-era massacre in Lisbon, Portugal, writing a neo-Nazi reference on the Star of David-shaped statue outside a central church.

The perpetrators in Lisbon used a marker to write “Haltz Judeu 1488,” a mix of the misspelled German command for “halt,” the word “Jew” in Portuguese and neo-Nazi code referencing Adolf Hitler’s famous 14-word quote (“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”) followed by the number substitution for “HH,” signifying “ heil Hitle