Yad Vashem graffiti vandal indicted; claims he wanted to blow up Knesset
Elhanan Ostrowitz charged with spray painting on Holocaust memorial, other sites
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The state prosecutor on Tuesday filed an indictment against an ultra-Orthodox man for defacing the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and two IDF war memorials. At Yad Vashem, the graffiti he allegedly sprayed included: “If Hitler hadn’t existed, the Zionists would have invented him.”
Elhanan Ostrowitz, a 31-year-old Jerusalem resident, was charged at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for spraying anti-Zionist hate slogans at the sites and, apparently, has shown no remorse for his actions.
The prosecutor asked in the indictment that Ostrowitz be remanded until trial because “the accused has shown no regret and even declared in his cell his intention to continue his activities.”
Ostrowitz was arrested in late June along with two other suspects who were released shortly after.
During questioning, Ostrowitz said that if he had the chance he would bomb the Knesset, the High Court, and IDF army bases, the prosecutor wrote. The accused also claimed he received funding to assist him in his campaign.
Ostrowitz, who describes himself as an anti-Zionist, reconnoitered Yad Vashem to examine its security systems before spraying anti-Zionist hate slogans on walls and defacing memorials at the site last month. In another attack, he sprayed graffiti on an IDF war memorial at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem and tried to burn an Israeli flag flying at the site. Ostrowitz also defaced three IDF memorials in the Jordan Valley.
