Suspect arrested in Yom Kippur pepper-spraying of Christian child in Jerusalem

Police say 22-year-old from Haredi-majority settlement of Ganei Modi’in arrested in northern Israel after assault, in which extremists attacked child upon hearing him speak English

By Noam Lehmann and ToI Staff Today, 1:42 pm
William, a nine-year-old Armenian Christian boy from Jerusalem, who was pepper-sprayed by a Jewish extremist on Yom Kippur, speaks to Channel 13, in an interview aired September 26, 2026. (Screenshot)

Police announced Sunday they had arrested a man for allegedly pepper-spraying a nine-year-old Armenian Christian boy in Jerusalem who was riding his bike and listening to music on the Yom Kippur holiday and then spoke to his assailant in English.

The suspect was identified as a 22-year-old from the settlement of Ganei Modi’in, near Jerusalem. The community is majority ultra-Orthodox.

The assault took place near the Mamilla mall, just outside the walls of the capital’s Old City.

The boy, identified only as William, told Channel 13 he was riding his bike and listening to music when he was stopped by a religious man. Some of the reports said William was listening to the music on a speaker, while others said he was wearing headphones.

The man told William to turn down the music. The child did so and began speaking to the man in English. According to Channel 13, the man told William, “No English, Jews!”

William then began to ride away. “He was hiding the pepper spray behind his back like this, then I went past him, he pepper sprayed me,” William recounted, adding that the assailant also pepper-sprayed a friend who was with him, but only “a little bit.”

“I thought I was going to die,” he told the network.

William’s mother told the Haaretz daily that the assailant attacked her son upon realizing he didn’t speak Hebrew.

Police initially closed the case, then reopened it after press started covering it, Channel 13 said.

Police said the suspect in the attack was arrested in northern Israel, where he had been for several days.

He was taken to a police station in Jerusalem, where he was to be interrogated, police said, adding that depending on the results of the interrogation, he may be brought before a court on Monday to have his detention extended.

“The Israel Police views with great gravity acts of violence and bullying against minors — especially those carried out with a nationalist or racist motive,” police said.

The incident on Yom Kippur was the second time the boy has been attacked. The first time — footage of which Channel 13 also aired — occurred a few years ago, when he was with his father and sister.

“There were like five, six boys that were Jewish and teenagers. They spit on a pole, and I was next to the pole. My dad said in Hebrew, ‘Don’t you see the boy, why did you spit next to him?’ and then they pepper-sprayed him, and then a bit of it came on my sister, then they ran,” William said of the incident.

People walk next to Armenian flags outside the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City on October 13, 2020, during a nationwide lockdown. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

There has been an uptick in attacks and harassment of Christians in Israel by Jewish extremists, including some who have spat on people and churches out of an extreme interpretation of the Bible’s injunction to “abhor” idol worshipers.

Some of the harassment has occurred in the Old City of Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, where police last month arrested a number of suspects for spitting and throwing stones at the Armenian Patriarchate compound.

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.

In a post to X on Monday, Deek wrote: “This is how such incidents must be treated: seriously, urgently, and with zero tolerance. Police conducted an intensive investigation, gathered evidence, identified the suspect, located him in northern Israel, and arrested him.

“Israel takes violence against Christians seriously. And when the victim is a child, there can be no excuses and no looking the other way. Hatred must be condemned, and those responsible will be held accountable,” he continued.

“To William and his family: I am thinking of you, and I hope you feel the support of so many people across Israel who were appalled by what happened. You deserve far better than this.”

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