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Arab teen arrested for shocking mezuzah vandalism

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“This is a serious attack against religious sensibilities and holy objects in Israel,” says attorney.

By World Israel News Staff

An Arab delivery driver who ripped a mezuzah from an apartment building entrance and threw it in a nearby garbage can has been arrested, police announced this week.

The driver, who is 16 years old and has not been publicly identified by name, was seen in security footage arriving with a food order from McDonald’s to an apartment building in the northern Israel city of Harish last week.

The teen is seen attempting and failing to open the locked door of the building without inputting the access code, and appears to grow frustrated.

Less than a minute later, he is seen grabbing the mezuzah – a holy text affixed to the doorframes of Jewish homes and businesses – and hurling it into a garbage can, then riding away on a scooter.

The act was discovered after residents of the building noticed the mezuzah was missing. One resident found it in the garbage can, and they watched security footage from the night before in order to determine who was behind the vandalism.

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The resident who had ordered the food contacted the delivery driver via WhatsApp message. The teen apologized and admitted to desecrating the mezuzah, offering to replace it.

With the help of an attorney from right-wing legal NGO B’Tsalmo, the residents of the building filed a police complaint against the teen, including screenshots of the conversation in which the perpetrator admitted his actions and security footage.

“This is a serious attack against religious sensibilities and holy objects in Israel. The clear documentation is shocking and offensive to anyone with a Jewish soul,” said B’Tsalmo attorney Michael Litvka.

Israeli law bans behavior that “offends religious sensibilities,” such as the destruction of holy books and objects from any faith.

The driver, who was employed by the Waze Delivery company, was immediately fired. The company, which is owned by Arab-Israelis and based in the nearby Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, condemned the act in a public statement and apologized.