Israeli officials and politicians expressed outrage Monday after graffiti was sprayed on Jerusalem’s Western Wall reading, in Hebrew, “There is a Holocaust in Gaza” and “Children are dying of hunger.”
A young Haredi man with severe mental health issues was reportedly responsible for the red paint writing on the southern section of the holiest site at which mainstream Jews pray.
A similar message was also painted on a wall of the city’s Great Synagogue on King George Street.
Police arrested the 27-year-old resident of Jerusalem on Monday morning.
According to the Hebrew outlet Ynet, the man belongs to the ultra-Orthodox community, and his family conveyed to Sephardi Chief Rabbi David Yosef that he suffers from mental health difficulties and has been hospitalized in the past. The report added that the suspect confessed and apologized during his questioning.
“A holy place is not a venue for expressing protests — whatever they may be — and all the more so when it is done at the holiest site to the entire Jewish people,” Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch said in a statement issued by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which manages the site. In fact, the holiest site in Judaism is the adjacent Temple Mount.
The graffiti was found near the egalitarian prayer area known as Ezrat Yisrael, an area separate from the main Western Wall plaza familiar to most visitors.
An initial statement by the police claimed that the suspect was taken in for questioning and then released under restrictive conditions. A later statement, however, said that the suspect was not released and would be brought before the court for a hearing, where police would request that his detention be extended.
A police spokesperson confirmed to The Times of Israel that “it was initially decided to release him, but before he left the police station and was cleared from his status as a detainee, it was decided that later in the day the suspect would be brought before a court as the police request to extend his detention.”
The development came after “reviewing the investigation’s findings and understanding that this was not an isolated incident.”
Later in the day, the Kan public broadcaster reported that a judge rejected a police request to extend the suspect’s detention by five days, instead ordering that he be hospitalized in a psychiatric ward.
According to Ynet, the 27-year-old was recently questioned and released after he sprayed graffiti on a picture of a fallen IDF soldier in Tel Aviv.
“My son is in a severe psychiatric state and normally would not do something like this,” the father of the man told Ynet. “He is a good and kind person, and we love him at home. I completely condemn his actions; it is a shame and a disgrace.”
Asked by The Times of Israel, a police spokesperson declined to comment on the identity of the suspect.
The incident sparked criticism across the political spectrum, with politicians from right to left taking to X to express their condemnation.
“I was appalled to see the damage and disrespect shown to the most sacred place to the Jewish people – the Western Wall,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees the police. “The Israel Police will act with lightning speed to arrest the perpetrator and bring him to justice.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, from the Religious Zionism party, wrote that “these ancient stones are soaked in the long history of our people, a history of building, destruction, blood, persecution and Holocaust, and again building and revival. Those who are capable of defiling them with sickening antisemitic blood libels have forgotten what it means to be Jewish.”
“There is no limit to the lunacy,” said Education Ministry Yoav Kisch from the ruling Likud party. “The Western Wall is the place where generations of Jews stood in prayer and tears. It is the symbol of the unity and eternity of the Jewish people. Harming it is harming us all.”
Among opposition leaders, Blue and White-National Unity chairman Benny Gantz called the act “a crime against the entire people of Israel,” and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman also condemned it, urging those responsible to be punished.
“This is a vile act that offends the feelings of members of the Jewish people from all communities and denominations,” said MK Gilad Kariv from The Democrats party. “This is the most terrible and despicable way to raise awareness of the need to end the war.”
The graffiti was removed by experts from the Conservation Division of the Israel Antiquities Authority, using water-based materials that do not harm the surface of the stones.
