Israel Police announced Sunday that seven people were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of desecrating Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City, the latest in a string of incidents targeting religious sites and clergy in the city.
All seven suspects were released under restrictive conditions following questioning on suspicion of conduct that could endanger public safety, police said.
Three adult suspects were detained on suspicion of vandalizing Muslim gravesites. Police did not specify when the alleged vandalism took place. Footage released by police showed the three men approaching a tombstone and kicking it repeatedly before one knocked it over with his hands.
The remaining four suspects were detained “in real time” after allegedly spitting at the Armenian Patriarchate compound.
“The Jerusalem District’s David Precinct police are acting firmly and continuously against the phenomenon of harming religious figures, religious institutions, and cemeteries in the Old City,” police said in a statement.
The arrests come amid an ongoing effort by Israeli law enforcement to curb harassment and attacks against Christian clergy and church property in the Old City. Such incidents have included repeated cases of spitting on the ground in front of clergy and other Christians, an act that can be prosecuted in Israel as a hate crime, as well as vandalism and physical assaults.
Earlier this month, police arrested six people, five of them minors, on suspicion of banging and spitting on the entrance to St. James Monastery in the Old City’s Armenian Quarter. The suspects also allegedly threw stones at the compound wall, which serves as the headquarters of the Armenian Church in the region and the residence of its senior local cleric.
Jerusalemite-Armenian reporter Kegham Balian wrote that the suspects also threw rocks at the window of an Armenian woman filming the incident, while shouting insults at her.
In a separate incident earlier this month, an Arab man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of vandalizing St. Anthony’s Church in Jaffa. Police said they found several statues smashed on the floor and multiple crosses broken on chairs and on the floor. The suspect was located and arrested during the investigation.
In April, following a series of similar incidents, the Foreign Ministry appointed veteran diplomat George Deek as special envoy to the Christian world, a newly created position.
