Jerusalem –
Police Israel caught a man United States of America (USA) in Jerusalem. The man allegedly damaged a wooden statue of Jesus and one of the churches in the Old City of Jerusalem.
As reported by AFP, Friday (3/2/2023), the US man was arrested on Thursday (2/2) yesterday. He was named a suspect and detained after a wooden statue of Jesus was knocked down and damaged at the Church of the Condemnation.
“The arrested suspect is an American tourist in his forties, who carried out the vandalism and destruction of statues in the church,” said a statement from police, adding that the man’s mental health was being assessed.
A spokesman for the United States embassy in Jerusalem did not comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.
Meanwhile, the gatekeeper who detained the accused, Majid al-Rishq, described the suspect as a Jewish man armed with a hammer. He said the person concerned had hit the statue of Jesus in the church until it was destroyed.
“He started hitting the Christ statue in the Church of the Condemnation. I was able to catch him and pull him up, but he dropped the statue and crushed it,” Rishq told AFP.
“I caught him and then the priests came and called the police,” he added.
For information, the wooden statue was brought from Spain to Jerusalem in 1912, said Eugenio Alliata, director of the SBF Archaeological Museum, which collects artifacts from the Holy Land.
Israeli police said the “damage to religious institutions and sites was very serious”, following a series of attacks targeting Christian communities.
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