Jerusalem's Western Wall vandalised with anti-war message: 'There is a holocaust in Gaza'

The Western Wall in Jerusalem has been vandalised with an anti-war message that reads “there is a holocaust in Gaza”. A similar message was also scrawled on the wall of the Great Synagogue elsewhere in the city.

The photo of the wall with the graffiti appeared on the social media. Firstpost could not independently confirm its authenticity.

The incident has been reported at a time when outrage over the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip has been rising over the world. Israel’s restriction on the flow of aid into the strip has caused a severe hunger crisis that has killed scores of people and caused widespread malnutrition. Separately, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed at food distribution sites in what they say to be Israeli attacks.

Despite continuing with the bombardment of Gaza and expanding ground offensive, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to either bring hostages back or defeat Hamas militarily. The failure, coupled with the tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis, has triggered protests and outrage.

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Amid such outrage, the Israel Police on Monday said that it arrested a 27-year-old Jerusalem resident suspected of spraying graffiti at the Western Wall complex and on the property of the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem.

The Western Wall is the only surviving part of the ancient Temple Mount that has been destroyed twice in history — firstly by the Babylonians in the 6th Century BCE and then by the Romans in the 1st century BCE. As the actual Temple Mount —the holiest site for Jews— today remains restricted to Jews for prayers, the Western Wall is the holiest place they can access and therefore retains central important to their faith.

Western Wall’s Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch called the vandalism an act of “desecration”.

“A holy place is not a place to express protests… The police must investigate this action, track down the criminals responsible for the desecration and bring them to justice,” said Rabinovitch, according to AFP.

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Considering the political tensions inside Israel over the opposition to the government over the failure to bring hostages back from Gaza and the government’s pursuit of the offensive in Gaza, the incident has the potential to inflame further tensions.