From the Liveblog of
Monday, August 11, 2025
Outrage after ‘Holocaust in Gaza’ graffiti sprayed on southern section of Western Wall
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleGraffiti reading “There is a Holocaust in Gaza” has been sprayed in red paint on the southern section of Jerusalem’s Western Wall, near the stairs leading to the egalitarian prayer area known as Ezrat Yisrael.
Photos circulating on social media show the Hebrew inscription stretched across several stones in an area separate from the main Western Wall plaza familiar to most visitors.
כתובת רוססה על הכותל הדרומי: "יש שואה בעזה", רב הכותל הגיב: "מקום קדוש אינו מקום להביע מחאות יהיו אשר יהיו ושבעתיים כשהדבר נעשה במקום הקדוש ביותר לעם היהודי כולו. על המשטרה לחקור את המעשה, לאתר את הפושעים לחילול הקודש ולהעמידם לדין". pic.twitter.com/0sJFIV4nCr
— שילה פריד???????? (@shilofreid) August 11, 2025
Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch condemns the act as a desecration and urges police to investigate.
“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,” he says in a statement issued by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which manages the site. “The police must investigate the incident, locate the perpetrators of this desecration, and bring them to justice.”
There was no immediate comment from police.
The foundation says a professional cleaning team will remove the graffiti in accordance with guidelines in line with Jewish law.
Blue and White-National Unity chairman Benny Gantz condemns the incident, calling the “desecration” of the “holiest place for the Jewish people a crime against the entire people of Israel.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declares that “the Israel Police will act with lightning speed to apprehend the offender and bring him to justice.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich writes on X 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.”
The Times of Israel Community.