Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned on Monday evening the anti-Zionist hate slogans and graffiti praising Hitler that were sprayed on the Yad VaShem Holocaust Museum.

“I saw the outrageous graffiti today at Yad Vashem,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “It is hard to believe that a human being could be capable of writing such things. I hope that the police will apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to the justice they deserve.”

President Shimon Peres, who landed in Washington, DC, on Monday, also condemned the incident, saying, “This is one of the most horrible things. What, are we trying to imitate those who tried to kill us? All the people must stand united, as one man, against this phenomenon.”

Yad VaShem Holocaust Museum officials were shocked Monday morning to discover the graffiti, which said “Hitler, thanks for the Holocaust” and “If Hitler didn’t exist the Zionists would have had to invent him”.

Another hate message stated, "Jews wake up – the Zionist regime is dangerous,” and the vandalism was signed by "The global Zionist mafia.”

Yad VaShem director Avner Shalev said, “I am shocked and horrified by this blatant act of burning hatred against the country and against Zionism. It has crossed the red line and is very worrisome.”

Holocaust survivor and former Israeli Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau said that the graffiti is a “defamation of the name of G-d of the worst level.”

Rabbi Lau called the graffiti an “idiotic act” and said that the nature of the slogans is not the style of anti-Zionist hareidi religious Jewish groups. He added that only a “deranged Jews” would write such hate slogans praising Hitler.

“Where is the honor to those who sacrificed their lives in the name of HaShem?” he asked rhetorically. “Whoever wrote these idiotic messages calls on the Polish government not to memorialize victims of Auschwitz. It is ugly and sad.”

Police said that an initial investigation points to extremist hareidi religious Jews but they added they have not yet reached a conclusion. (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 06/12/12)