Security camera footage of men wearing Jewish religious clothing smashing a stone cross in a historic Jerusalem cemetery has prompted claims that Israeli extremists are responsible for the desecration of more than 30 Christian graves.
The vandalism at the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion, conducted in broad daylight on Sunday afternoon, has shocked church leaders and led to calls for Israel to crack down on racist far-right settlers.
Watch: Jewish extremists vandalize #Christian cemetery in Mount Zion in the occupied city of #Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/QZFE8L53uM
— Wafa News Agency - English (@WAFANewsEnglish) January 4, 2023
Nir Hasson, a reporter from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, tweeted the footage, saying it showed “two Jews vandalising graves”. The CCTV video showed two young men wearing kippas on their heads and knotted tzitzit tassels on their clothes – items worn by some religious Jews.
Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, posted the same video, blaming the attack on “Jewish extremists”.
Israeli police said they were investigating the attack but they have not confirmed any arrests. Israel’s foreign ministry called the attack an “immoral act” and “an affront to religion”.
The cemetery was established in 1848 just outside the ancient walled city of Jerusalem, the western side of Mount Zion. It holds the graves of prominent clergy and was later used as a burial site for British soldiers and Palestinian police officers, some of whose headstones were destroyed on Sunday.
The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the attack was “a blasphemous act”, and the UK’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said it was “shameful vandalism”.
The British consulate in Jerusalem said it was “the latest in a string of attacks against Christians and their property in and around the Old City”.
In 2021, Christian leaders in the Holy Land wrote in a joint letter that Arab Christian communities were under threat of being driven from the region by extremist Israeli radical groups.
Israel has long been called on to do more to prevent attacks by hardline settlers. Its new government, however, includes several far-right members from the settler movement.
One new member, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is a former lawyer who defended Israelis accused of religiously motivated attacks. Ben-Gvir now oversees the Israeli police as national security minister.
