Israeli police arrested a person accused of attacking a nun on Tuesday in Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis, in an incident that comes amid ongoing tensions across the standing of Christians in Israel.
The 36-year-old suspect, who was not recognized by authorities, was questioned on suspicion of finishing up a racially motivated assault and is anticipated to look earlier than the Jerusalem Justice of the Peace’s Court docket for a listening to on extending his detention, in keeping with the Instances of Israel.
The nun, a researcher on the French Faculty of Biblical and Archeological Analysis, sustained accidents from the assault together with a bruise on her brow, in keeping with a picture posted on X by the Israel Police.
“The Israel Police treats any assault on members of the clergy and spiritual communities with the utmost seriousness and applies a coverage of zero tolerance to all acts of violence,” the Israel Police mentioned. “In a metropolis sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, we stay dedicated to defending all communities and guaranteeing these answerable for violence are held accountable.
The director of the varsity, Olivier Poquillon, decried the “unprovoked assault” in a publish on X, writing, “We strongly condemn this act of sectarian violence and anticipate the authorities to behave swiftly and firmly.”
The arrest comes as tensions have flared in latest weeks between Christian communities in Israel and the federal government, with Israeli police briefly blocking prime Catholic clergy from coming into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre forward of Easter and Israeli troopers drawing widespread condemnation for bludgeoning a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, additionally took purpose final 12 months on the Israeli authorities for treating Christian organizations as “adversaries.”
The latest tensions comply with years of skirmishes between Orthodox Jews and Christians within the Outdated Metropolis of Jerusalem. An epidemic of spitting assaults, usually by yeshiva college students who subscribe to an excessive interpretation of the Bible’s injunction to “abhor” idol worshipers, spurred rabbinic rebuke prior to now, however such incidents have endured.
The college of humanities on the Hebrew College of Jerusalem, which mentioned the nun’s college was a accomplice group, additionally condemned the newest assault, writing that it had been perpetrated by “extremists within the Outdated Metropolis.”
“This isn’t an remoted incident, however a part of a troubling sample of rising hostility towards the Christian group and its symbols,” the assertion learn. “As students of historical past and tradition, we view this violence as a direct assault on the basic values of Jerusalem – a metropolis whose power lies in its non secular pluralism and its dedication to secure, open dialogue.”
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