Man dressed as Santa kills Christian

TEL AVIV // A lay leader of Israel’s Christian minority was stabbed to death during an Orthodox Christmas procession by a person dressed as Santa Claus, his church said.

Police have arrested six locals in connection with Friday’s murder of Gabi Kadees in Jaffa, a predominantly Arab port district of Tel Aviv, but said there was no indication of a sectarian motive.

Kadees, the head of Jaffa’s communal Orthodox Association, was stabbed in the back during a pa- rade marking Jesus’s birth according to the Eastern church calender, Israeli media said.

The assailant, who slipped away in the crowd, wore a Santa Claus costume, the senior Greek Orthodox cleric Atallah Hanna said.

“He also killed our Christmas joy, and also killed the human and spiritual values embodied by Santa Claus – who makes children happy on Christmas Eve,” Mr Hanna said.

Christians make up fewer than 5 per cent of the population of Israel, where the biggest minority is Muslim.

Jaffa has seen some mob violence as well as tensions between longtime Arab residents and Jews.

Luba Samri, a police spokeswoman, said yesterday that while all angles of the murder were being investigated, there was “nothing to suggest a nationalistic motive” – which is Israel’s term for crimes along political, religious or sectarian lines.

Six Jaffa residents, all Arabs like Kadees, had been arrested, she said.