ByJennifer Lipman, Jennifer Lipman
Police are investigating who was behind a Facebook page mocking the Jewish community of Giffnock in Glasgow.
Nearly 1,000 people "liked" the "Welcome to Israel, only kidding you're in Giffnock" page, which remained on the social networking site for more than a week before it was shut down last Friday.
The page hosted comments including "Jewish scum" and "F--- the Jewish Zionist". The creator accompanied the abusive remarks with a photograph of the late Rev Ernest Levy, a Holocaust survivor and Glasgow communal leader.
Information for the page said: "They have a Gaelic translation in the train station, Hebrew would have been more appropriate."
Members made "jokes" about Jewish residents, including one who mentioned his "Holocaust ring" and commented: "Hebrew is not needed in the train station [because] all the Jews are f---ing rich c---- they have gold plated Bentleys". One individual claimed it was acceptable to be "anti-Jewish" because of Israel's actions.
The page was spotted by several users, who reported it as abusive and alerted the police. Before the page disappeared, the creator posted: "F-"k this s--t, it's not worth it".
A Giffnock police spokesman said the investigation was ongoing and added that the most important thing was that the content was no longer live.
Marc Livingston, a trainee solicitor who grew up in Giffnock, was one of several people to report the page as a violation of Facebook's code of conduct. "Even if the original sentiment of the group wasn't overtly racist, by saying it may as well be Israel it was suggesting that Jews were taking over."