IDF says cross on Syrian Mount Hermon fixed, after troops damaged it on purpose
Military spokesperson says alleged acts don’t ‘reflect the values of the IDF,’ whose troops ‘represent all different faiths’; soldiers apparently rotated the cross to become an X
The Israel Defense Forces has repaired a Christian cross that was apparently vandalized and moved by troops on Syria’s Mount Hermon and then returned to its original position, according to a Tuesday evening update from the military’s international spokesperson.
Right-wing TV pundit Yinon Magal posted an account on Sunday he had received from an unnamed IDF soldier who said that troops had moved the cross.
“Someone decided to dub the site ‘The Jesus’ because there’s a cross there that someone used a long time ago to mark the peak [of the mountain]. Until now the point has been known as ‘The Cross,'” Magal quoted the soldier as saying.
He said the soldiers “didn’t like” the name used for the site, so they “made sure that from now on, no one will have a reason to see a cross there and call it as such.”
“See the before photo — when we arrived at twilight, and after, when we left at night,” the soldier was quoted as saying, referring to photos showing the cross having been rotated from an upright Christian cross position to an X.
“From now it will be called ‘The X-peak,'” the post concluded, followed by emojis of a winking face, bicep muscle, Israeli flag, and mountain.
According to the anonymous soldier’s account, troops were at the site, which he said is located one kilometer (0.6 miles) north of the highest United Nations observation post on Mount Hermon, to fortify IDF bases in the buffer zone as winter sets in.
Israeli soldiers destroy Christian cross on Mount Hermon, Syria.
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Magal’s post caused an uproar on social media, and was later apparently deleted.
The post sparked outrage online — especially given the lead-up to the Christmas holiday — with Israeli and foreign social media users and media outlets criticizing the act and accusing IDF soldiers of deliberately destroying the cross.
Russian news outlets also picked up the story, with one reporting that “every year on August 5, Christian pilgrims ascend Mount Hermon to commemorate when Jesus took his disciples Peter, James and John to the summit, where he transformed before them.”
The military subsequently issued a rebuke of the actions on Tuesday.
Sharing a photo of the restored cross on X, IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani wrote: “This does not reflect the values of the IDF, and our soldiers represent all different backgrounds and faiths. Today, IDF soldiers fixed the cross in order to return it to its original state.”
The Syrian-controlled side of Mount Hermon falls more than 10 kilometers from the Israeli border, the furthest point in the 235-square-kilometer demilitarized buffer zone that was established in the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Syria, which concluded the Yom Kippur War.
The altitude of the mountain makes it a strategic position for the IDF to better monitor the border area and prevent any attacks.
Israel entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights and captured the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon hours after rebel groups in Syria took Damascus on December 8, stressing that the seizure was a temporary defensive move that would last only until security could be guaranteed along the frontier.
The Christian tradition largely holds Mount Tabor, located near the Sea of Galilee in Israel around 100 kilometers (62 miles) southwest of the Syrian border, as the site of the transfiguration of Jesus. According to the books of Mark, Matthew and Luke, Jesus took his disciples Peter, James and John there, where he glowed with light and spoke with the prophets Moses and Elijah.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor every year, according to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, which oversees Roman Catholic properties in the area.
However, there is some contention among historians about where the transfiguration of Jesus took place, given that it is mentioned in the scriptures only as “the high mountain.” Mount Meron in the Upper Galilee and Mount Nebo in Jordan have been proposed as possibilities, along with Mount Hermon, which straddles Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
