RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli police said Friday that they arrested a 36-year-old caught on video attacking a nun in the latest incident targeting Christians near Jerusalem’s Old City.
Police said the unnamed man was arrested after the attack Wednesday near David’s Tomb — a holy site outside Zion’s Gate on the southern side of the Old City — “on suspicion of a racially motivated attack,” and remained in custody.
Police video showed the nun bruised and the attacker wearing tzitzit, a fringed undergarment worn by some observant Jewish men.
Olivier Poquillon, the director of the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, said the nun was a researcher at the school. He called the attack an “act of sectarian violence” in a post on X.
The Old City in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem is a centuries-old walled enclave built atop millennia of history and home to some of the holiest sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is a flash point for tensions as access and ownership to the sites are deeply entangled with the historic and political claims that lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Religious groups have documented a rise in acts of harassment and violence against Christian pilgrims and clergy as well as Palestinian Christian residents, including assaults and spitting, often by ultra-Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students.
Wadie Abunassar, the coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, called attacks targeting Christians a growing phenomenon. He attributed the quick response to the attack on the nun to the fact that it was caught on video.
He said he felt “great anger on the system and great sadness because I feel that this will not end anytime soon.” One of the problems, he said, was the deterrence against such violence.
“Many times in such cases there are no arrests and if there are arrests, sometimes after one or two days, (suspects) are released,” he added. “In some cases, the police do not recommend the prosecution to file charges or to indict them. And in some cases, when there is indictment, the indictment is mild.”
The arrest comes as Israeli treatment of religious minorities is under scrutiny, weeks after police limited access for holiday worship to Muslims as well as Christians, up to Latin Patriarch’s Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
Israel also drew international criticism after a soldier photographed himself having bludgeoned a fallen statue of Jesus on the cross with an ax in southern Lebanon. Israeli leaders later disavowed the incident and said he would be reprimanded.
“In a city sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, we remain committed to protecting all communities and ensuring those responsible for violence are held accountable,” Israeli police said in a social media post about the man arrested for attacking the nun.
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