Israeli police on Thursday arrested an American tourist after he allegedly knocked down and broke a statue of Jesus in a church in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Images on social media showed the statue laying horizontally on the ground after apparently being pulled down from a stand on the church. The incident occurred within the Church of the Flagellation, which is situated on the Via Dolorosa, the route believed to have been walked by Jesus to his crucifixion.
Police said they made the arrest with the help of a church security guard. Video on social media showed a person sitting atop the alleged vandal who’s heard saying “you may’t have idols in Jerusalem, that is the holy city.”
Police said the person’s mental health was being assessed. The American Embassy declined to comment.
The incident got here as tensions run high in Jerusalem and the region following a bloody week. An Israeli military raid within the West Bank killed 10 Palestinians, mostly militants but in addition a 61-year-old woman. A Palestinian shooting attack outside a synagogue in east Jerusalem killed seven people, including a 14-year-old.
The unrest is available in the primary weeks of Israel’s recent, far-right government, a few of whose ultranationalist, religious members have used inflammatory, anti-Arab rhetoric.
In a press release, the Custodia Terrae Sanctae, the Catholic Church’s custodians of holy sites within the Holy Land, said “this hate crime joins a listing of attacks all of which targeted the Christian community in Israel up to now month.”
“It isn’t a coincidence that the violent dialogue in Israeli society is translated also into these grave acts,” it said, calling on Israeli law enforcement to take motion to halt such incidents.
Father Nikodemus Schnabel of the Dormition Abbey just outside the Old City linked the incident to the federal government’s character.
“Welcome to the brand new Christian-hating Israel, encouraged and supported by the present government!” he tweeted.
Police said they view damage to spiritual institutions as serious.
