250 Jewish Graves Desecrated Near Haifa : Israel: A man seen loitering in two cemeteries is being questioned. The action is seen as a copy of vandalism in France.

A vandal defaced about 250 graves in two Jewish cemeteries near Haifa early Sunday, just days after the ghoulish desecration of Jewish tombs in southern France.

Police questioned a 41-year-old Jewish man who had been seen loitering in the cemeteries in recent weeks, government television and radio reported. The black spray-painted graffiti appeared to be the work of a single person.

Families of the dead who are buried at the Haifa cemeteries rushed to the scene to inspect the damage. “Exterminate the Jews,” read one message. “The Palestinian state will rise,” read another.

“My mother is buried here. It’s a terrible thing,” cried a visitor to one of the cemeteries. “When they find the criminals, they mustn’t deal with them lightly.”

Israeli leaders reacted angrily to what appeared to be a copycat act in the wake of the desecration in France, where graves were dug up and a corpse mutilated.

“I condemn in the strongest terms these animals in the guise of human beings who desecrated these graves,” Haifa Mayor Aryeh Gurel said.

Gurel pointed out that Arab-Jewish relations in Haifa are relatively peaceful and that Sunday was the opening day of “Arab Culture Week” in the coastal city.

Farid Washdi Tabari, the spiritual leader of the Haifa Muslim community, also condemned the incident. “Although we do not know at this point who did it, we are impelled to say it’s a bad thing and will not help bring about peace or coexistence,” he said.

Israeli officials had linked the desecration that took place in France to perceptions of growing anti-Semitism in Europe.

Dov Shilansky, the Speaker of Israel’s Parliament, sent a message to the French Senate urging France to take the lead in eradicating anti-Semitism in Europe. “If anti-Semitism is not eliminated rapidly, this would harm all peoples and not just the Jews,” Shilansky wrote.

In Carpentras, France, French political leaders of left and right joined more than 10,000 mourners at an emotional graveyard ceremony Sunday, united in grief over the desecration of tombs in one of the country’s oldest Jewish cemeteries, according to wire service reports.

Interior Minister Pierre Joxe led a government delegation that included three other Cabinet ministers who wore Jewish skullcaps in solidarity with anguished residents of Carpentras.

Many wept in the surging congregation, which included Roman Catholic bishops and Muslim imams. The Communists and the main center-right opposition parties all sent high-level representatives.

Carpentras store owners closed their shutters and traffic halted for about 15 minutes as a mark of sympathy for the town’s Jews, numbering about 125 families.