Jerusalem (Agenzia Fides) – The series of attacks and intimidation that have been carried out in recent weeks against churches and Christian objects in the Old City of Jerusalem continues. On the morning of Thursday, February 2nd, a man – described by the Israeli media as an “American tourist” – broke into the Chapel of Condemnation on the Via Dolorosa and destroyed a statue of Jesus that had been placed there, first throwing it to the ground and then hitting it with a hammer. The man was immobilized and handed over to the Israeli police. Videos of his arrest, which have been circulating online, can be heard shouting that “there can be no idols in Jerusalem, which is the Holy City.”
Information disseminated by the Israeli police and relaunched by local media links the vandalism to alleged psychological problems of the perpetrator. Meanwhile, a spate of intimidation attempts against people and places of worship have taken place in the Christian and Armenian quarters of Jerusalem’s Old City in recent weeks, while the number of victims of raids, attacks and reprisals that have been reported for months in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel to be recorded, is increasing day by day.
The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, after the assault on the Chapel of Condemnation, issued a communiqué, signed by Custos Francis Patton and secretary Father Alberto Joan Pari, “to express concern and deploration in the face of “this growing number of serious acts of hatred and violence against the Christian community in Israel.” The Custody speaks of “hate crimes”. “It is no coincidence that the legitimisation of discrimination and violence in public opinion and in the current Israeli political environment also translates into acts of hatred and violence against the Christian community.”
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ASIA/HOLY LAND – Jerusalem, Shrine of the Flagellation desecrated – Agenzia Fides
ASIA/HOLY LAND – Jerusalem, Shrine of the Flagellation desecrated – Agenzia Fides
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