Seven arrested in Jerusalem over attacks on Armenian church, Muslim graves

Four people were arrested over the weekend following alleged spitting at Jerusalem's Armenian Cathedral of St James in the Old City, while three others were detained after reportedly vandalising Muslim graves. 

Footage released by Israeli police showed three people approaching a tombstone and kicking it several times before one of them bent down and knocked it over with his hands. 

Police said four other suspects were detained “in real time” after allegedly spitting at the Armenian Patriarchate compound, although it did not specify when the incidents occurred. 

According to the Jerusalem Post, the suspects also threw rocks at the window of an Armenian woman who was filming the incident, while shouting: "Get back inside, you daughter of a w****!” 

Israeli police said in the statement that all of the suspects were subsequently released under restrictive conditions after being questioned over conduct suspected of posing a threat to public safety. 

"Arrests alone can not be considered sufficient if such incidents continue and do not result in meaningful accountability and deterrence," the Armenian National Committee of Jerusalem (ANCJ) said in a statement sent to The New Arab.

"From the perspective of the Armenian community, the recent incidents are particularly concerning because they appear to form part of a recurring pattern of harassment against Armenians and Christian religious sites in the Old City, including spitting, verbal abuse, vandalism and other forms of intimidation," it said.

"We call upon the authorities to ensure equal protection for all religious communities, strengthen security around vulnerable religious sites, investigate incidents promptly, and ensure meaningful accountability where offences are established.“

The Old City, in East Jerusalem, which has been illegally annexed by Israel, is home to some of the holiest sites in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. 

It remains a flashpoint for tensions amid continued seizure of Palestinian homes by settlers, alongside attacks targeting places of worship, such as the Al-Aqsa Mosque and churches in the city.

There have also been cases involving the desecration of religious symbols.  

Rights groups, including Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, have previously reported that attacks on Christians and Muslims by Jewish extremists have been compounded by Israeli restrictions on freedom of worship in Jerusalem.  

The organisation has argued that such measures are used to subjugate Palestinians and reshape the city's demographics along discriminatory religious and ethnic lines, describing them as "a grave violation of religious freedom and international law" and part of "a systematic apparatus of repression within a broader structure of settler colonialism and apartheid". 

Meanwhile, footage aired by Al Jazeera English on Sunday showed Israeli rabbi Menachem Ben Shahar calling for Palestinians to be expelled from the occupied West Bank, saying that non-Jews have "no national rights" in what he described as the “land of Israel”. 

Ben Shahar was also heard telling a group that Arabs who refuse to accept Jewish sovereignty should leave the territory.