Anti-Christian graffiti scrawled on Jerusalem monastery

Suspected right-wing extremists spray painted anti-Christian graffiti overnight and set alight a wooden door at Latrun monastery, which is located about half way between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israeli police said Tuesday.

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the words "Jesus is a monkey" were scrawled in Hebrew on the wall, as well as "Migron," an Israeli West Bank settlement outpost evacuated on Sunday.

The arson and graffiti is assumed to be a "price tag" attack - a name given to a campaign by radical Jewish settlers to retaliate for Israeli police and army evacuations of unauthorized Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank.

Most of the price tag attacks are directed at Palestinian property, but in February a Greek Church and a Baptist Church in Jerusalem were targeted.

Police have launched a special investigation into the Latrun incident, Rosenfeld said.