Dozens of Christian graves have been found defaced and toppled over at a historic cemetery in Jerusalem and Israeli police say they have arrested two people in connection with the crime.
Police officers were dispatched to the Protestant cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion to investigate the crime at a site that is associated in Christian tradition with the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples the night before his crucifixion and also sacred to Jews. and muslims.
At the site, they found some 30 Christian tombstones that had been toppled and smashed.
Widely shared security camera footage on Sunday showed two young men, both wearing a Jewish skullcap and tzitzit, the ritually knotted fringe worn by observant Jews, storming into the cemetery, toppling stone crosses and smashing and trampling headstones, leaving a trail of debris. and broken tombstones
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Palestinian Anglican Bishop Hosam Naoum pauses where vandals desecrated more than 30 graves at a historic Protestant cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, Wednesday, January 4, 2023.
(. (AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean))
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the attack an “immoral act” and “an affront to religion.” The Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum, called it a “clear hate crime”. The British consulate said it was just the latest in a series of attacks on the Christian community in the holy city of Jerusalem.
Among the destroyed tombs was one containing a 19th-century bust of Samuel Gobat, the second Protestant bishop in Jerusalem who died in 1879, the Episcopalian diocese said. The graves of three police officers, British citizens serving in the police force of what was then British-ruled Palestine, were also vandalized.
The diocese warned that the desecration of the cemetery should be seen as an ominous warning about “hatred against Christians.”
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Hosam Naoum, a Palestinian Anglican bishop, touches a damaged grave where vandals desecrated more than 30 graves at a historic Protestant cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, Wednesday, January 4, 2023.
((AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean))
Chief Superintendent Assaf Harel said two people have been arrested for the crime and haartez reported that the two suspects are 18 and 14 years old.
“Any damage to religious institutions and sites is serious and harms the unique and delicate life that exists for members of all faiths in the city,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. he tweeted on friday. “We have an ongoing commitment to maintaining security and order, as well as an uncompromising and determined fight against lawbreakers wherever they may be.”
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A tombstone is toppled where vandals desecrated more than 30 graves at a historic Protestant cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion in the Old City of Jerusalem, Wednesday, January 4, 2023.
((AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean))
Israel’s Christian population grew by 2% in 2021, to a total of 185,000, representing 1.9% of Israel’s total population, the Times of Israel reported.
About 70% of Christians live in the northern part of the country in cities like Nazareth and Haifa, while some 13,000 call Jerusalem home.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
