Tel Aviv, Israel — Israel on Thursday charged a Jewish man with a violent attack on a nun near Jerusalem’s Old City last week, the latest in a series of high-profile incidents targeting Christians and religious symbols.
The indictment identified the man as Yona Schreiber, 36, from the Israeli-occupied West Bank settlement of Peduel. It comes after a video of the attack drew widespread condemnation from foreign and Christian leaders.
Schreiber was arrested Last week, and Israel’s Attorney General recommended extending his detention for the duration of the case. Schreiber’s attorney declined to speak to an Associated Press reporter in court.
According to the indictment, Schreiber attacked a woman in Jerusalem, just outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, because she was wearing a habit that identified her as a Catholic nun. The indictment says he pushed her and then kicked her while she lay on the ground, and also attacked a passerby who attempted to stop his attack.
Schreiber is being charged with simple assault and assault motivated by religious hostility.
Olivier Poquillon, 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 communal violence” in an ex-post.
Religious groups have reported an increase in harassment and acts of violence against Christian pilgrims and clergy as well as Palestinian Christian residents, often including attacks and spitting by extremist ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The arrest comes as police investigate Israel’s treatment of religious minorities Limited access for holiday worship of Jerusalem’s holiest sites due to security concerns during the Iran-Iran war.
The Latin Patriarch was Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa. Ban on organizing private gatherings At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Palm Sunday, Catholic leaders have been prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday in the church for the first time in centuries. After the uproar, Jerusalem police eventually reached an agreement for limited Easter Mass in the church.
Israel had to face international criticism after a soldier Took a photo of myself hurting myself Fallen statue of Jesus hanging from an ax on the cross in southern Lebanon. Israeli leaders later disowned the incident and said they would be reprimanded, and that local residents would be assisted in replacing the statue.
The Israeli military also began investigating a photo of a soldier stuffing a cigarette into the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary, apparently taken several weeks earlier. The army said it viewed the incident “extremely seriously”. And there have been questions and concerns about Israeli troops Bulldozing on parts of Catholic convent In southern Lebanon.
Last month, Israel’s Foreign Ministry appointed former Ambassador George Deek as special envoy to Christendom in response to the incidents. Deak previously served as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan and was the first Arab Christian ambassador to Israel.
Deak condemned the soldier filmed smoking a cigarette next to a statue of the Virgin Mary and stressed that Israel is “committed to upholding religious freedom and the dignity of all religions.”
Israel’s founding declaration includes protecting freedom of religion and all holy sites, and it portrays itself as an oasis of religious tolerance in a volatile region.
But some church officials and watchdog groups have lamented the recent increase Anti-Christian sentiment and persecution. The issue has been particularly raised in the Old City of Jerusalem, a densely populated area of ​​narrow ancient cobblestone streets that houses holy sites for Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Wadi Abunassar, coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, last week described attacks targeting Christians as a growing phenomenon. He attributed the quick response to the attack on the nun to the fact that it was captured on video.
He said he felt “very angry at the system and very sad, because I think it’s not going away any time soon.” One of the problems, he said, was inadequate prevention against such violence.
“In such cases, many times there are no arrests and if arrests are made, sometimes (the suspects) are released after a day or two,” he said. “In some cases, police do not recommend that prosecutors file charges or convict them. And in some cases, when there is an indictment, the charges are light.”
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Sam Metz contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.
