Jerusalem police said on Sunday they are investigating who was behind a rash of posters in the capital depicting Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Ehud Olmert stamping products from the territories with a Nazi-era yellow "Jude" Star of David, under the slogan "Olmert caves in to the EU demands to label Israel´s Yesha [Judea, Samaria and Gaza] products."
The posters appeared on Rehov Straus in downtown Jerusalem as well as other streets around the capital.
Deputy Internal Security Minister Ya´acov Edri (Likud) strongly condemned the posters and said he hopes the perpetrators are brought to justice.
"I see this as very serious, and I hope and believe the police will apprehend and arrest those behind it," Edri said.
"When you make an extreme connection like that it is incitement and that is very dangerous," Edri continued. "It is making a clear connotation that Olmert is putting a yellow star on the settlers."
Olmert has recently drawn strong criticism from settlers for acceding to a European Union request to label products made in Israel with their city of manufacture, thus identifying those products that come from beyond the Green Line.
"We have had enough of incitement in the past," Edri said referring to the period leading up to the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin during which posters and banners against the government´s policies were condemned by some for their inciting content.
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky strongly condemned the posters and ordered municipal workers to immediately remove them. City spokesman Gidi Schmerling said the municipality will register a formal complaint with the police against the perpetrators and press for charges if they are apprehended.
Jerusalem Police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby said police are investigating whether the poster can be considered incitement. "First we need to check if it is really incitement and if it is against the law," Ben-Ruby said. "We are also looking into where the posters came from."
Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip spokesman Yehoshua Mor-Yosef also spoke out against the posters.
"Although we are very much against what he is doing we are also against the posters," Mor–Yosef said. "He [Olmert] might be a bit confused but there is certainly no place to suggest he is anti- Semitic. That is out of bounds."
The cartoon featured in the poster was originally drawn by Israeli cartoonist Oleg on behalf of the Women in Green and appeared as a paid advertisement in last Friday´s edition of The Jerusalem Post.
Co-chair of the Women in Green Nadia Matar denied any knowledge of the posters and suggested the picture was taken from the Women in Green´s Web site where the cartoon appears, along with previous drawings.
"Someone took it and did a good job," Matar said. "Perhaps we can get the same people to put them up every week, because we can´t afford to do it."
Matar defended the theme of the cartoons and said it is Olmert´s actions that are questionable.
"The first step is to label the products with a yellow star and next it will be the people of Yesha. It is Olmert that is an outrage, not the poster," she said.
Should the perpetrators be caught Matar said she will not press charges for breach of copyright.
"Why should I? They did us a favor," she said.