7 detained for spitting at church, vandalizing Muslim graves in Jerusalem Old City

The Israel Police announced on Sunday that seven people were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of desecrating Christian and Muslim holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The suspects were all released under restrictive conditions after officers questioned them on suspicion of conduct that could harm public safety, the police statement said.

Three of the suspects, all adults, were detained for allegedly vandalizing Muslim gravesites, police said, without specifying when the crime took place.

Footage of the incident published by the police showed the three approaching a tombstone and kicking it several times, before one of them leans down and knocks it over with his hands.

Police said four other suspects were detained “in real time” after allegedly spitting at the Armenian Patriarchate compound.

“The Jerusalem District’s David Precinct police are acting firmly and continuously against the phenomenon of harming religious figures, religious institutions, and cemeteries in the Old City,” the statement added.

In footage published by the Israel Police on August 30, 2026, three men can be seen kicking a tombstone in a Muslim cemetery in the Old City of Jerusalem. (Israel Police)

Law enforcement in Israel has been struggling to stop harassment and attacks against Christian clergy and church property in the Old City, including frequent incidents of people, mostly young Orthodox Jews, spitting on the ground in front of clergy and other Christians — an act that may be prosecuted in Israel as a hate crime.

There have also been acts of vandalism against churches and cemeteries, and physical assaults, including actions that bear the hallmark of extremist Jewish settler violence familiar from the West Bank.

Earlier this month, six religious Jews — five minors and one adult — were arrested for banging and spitting on the entrance to the St. James Monastery in the Old City’s Armenian Quarter.

The six also threw stones at the wall of the compound, which is the headquarters of the Armenian Church in the region and the home of its top local cleric.

In April, after a series of similar incidents, the Foreign Ministry appointed veteran diplomat George Deek to a newly created role of special envoy to the Christian world.