Judge sends Western Wall graffiti suspect to psychiatric hospital

Rossella Tercatin is The Times of Israel's archaeology and religions reporter.

Graffiti reading 'There is a Holocaust in Gaza' seen spray painted on Jerusalem's Western Wall on August 11, 2025. (Courtesy, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Graffiti reading 'There is a Holocaust in Gaza' seen spray painted on Jerusalem's Western Wall on August 11, 2025. (Courtesy, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

A judge in Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court orders that a suspect accused of spraying graffiti on Jerusalem’s Western Wall and Great Synagogue be hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, according to Hebrew media reports.

The graffiti, reading “There is a Holocaust in Gaza,” drew widespread shock.

The judge rejects the police’s request to hold the suspect for five additional days, calling the incident a “sad case,” according to Kan.

According to Ynet, the judge rejected a police request to ban the suspect from visiting the Western Wall, stating that “I do not ban Jews from the Western Wall.”

According to Ynet, the suspect is a 27-year-old man from the Haredi community. His parents reportedly reached out to the Sephardi Chief Rabbi David Yosef to convey their son’s alleged mental illness.

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