‘Gaza Holocaust’ – Western Wall defaced by pro-Palestinian graffiti

The suspect’s family says he has a long history of mental health issues and hospitalizations.

By World Israel News Staff

A Jerusalem resident was arrested Monday afternoon after spray-painting pro-Palestinian messages on the Western Wall — one of the holiest sites in Judaism — and on the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem.

Police said the suspect, a 27-year-old Jewish man from Jerusalem whose name has not been released, wrote “there is a Holocaust in Gaza” on both the Western Wall and the synagogue.

The graffiti on the Western Wall was sprayed on a section designated for egalitarian prayer, located outside the main area used for traditional worship.

Hebrew-language media reported that police quickly apprehended the suspect, who confessed to the vandalism.

Although he was initially expected to be released to house arrest, public outrage prompted police to announce they would seek to keep him in custody for a longer period.

According to Ynet, the man was recently arrested for defacing a poster of an IDF soldier in Tel Aviv.

Family members told a prominent rabbi that he suffers from mental health problems and has been hospitalized multiple times for these issues.

The graffiti sparked swift condemnation from Israeli leaders and lawmakers from across the political spectrum.

“A holy place is not a place to express protests of any kind, and sevenfold when this is done at the holiest place for the entire Jewish people,” Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said in a media statement.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X that the suspect had violated the sanctity of the site.

“These ancient stones are saturated with the long history of our people; a history of building, destruction, blood, persecution and the Holocaust, and again of building and rebirth,” the Religious Zionism Party chairman said.

“Anyone who can defile them with deranged antisemitic blood libels has forgotten what it means to be a Jew,” he added.

Opposition Leader Benny Gantz referred to the graffiti as “a crime against the entire Jewish people.”