An American tourist was detained by Israeli police at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem after he threw artwork to the ground and damaged two Roman statues from the second century.
The vandalism late on Thursday aroused doubts about the security of Israel’s treasured collections and sparked worries about an increase in crimes against Jerusalem’s historic heritage.
The suspect, a radical 40-year-old Jewish American tourist, was recognized by police. According to early interrogation, the suspect may have destroyed the sculptures because he believed them to be “idolatrous and against the Torah.”
Instead, the traveler, according to Kaufman, had the Jerusalem syndrome, a mental illness known to psychiatrists. Foreign visitors are claimed to experience a sort of disorientation that makes them think they are biblical characters. This condition is thought to be brought on by the religious magnetism of the city, which is sacred to Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
The defendant has been mandated to go through a psychological assessment. Due to a gag order, authorities did not disclose his name.
Spitting and other attacks on Christian worshippers by radical ultra-Orthodox Jews have been on the rise, unsettling tourists, upsetting local Christians, and igniting worldwide outrage during the Jewish holiday season, when religious passions are burning and tensions are seething. Sukkot, a Jewish harvest festival, is over on Friday.
The renowned Israel Museum, which features exhibits on archaeology, fine art, and Jewish art and life, called Thursday’s graffiti a “troubling and unusual event,” saying it “condemns all forms of violence,” and hoped it wouldn’t happen again.
Images from the museum showed a statue of a pagan figure breaking into pieces and the marble head of the goddess Athena being knocked from its pedestal and onto the ground. The restored statues were being repaired, according to museum personnel. The museum declined to disclose the statues’ market value or the cost of their destruction.
The defacement, which authorities also blamed on Jewish iconoclasm in compliance with early prohibitions against idolatry, alarmed the Israeli government.
Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, described the situation as “a shocking case of the destruction of cultural values.” We are concerned about how religiously motivated extremists are destroying cultural values.
The act of damage against historical sites in Jerusalem appears to be the most recent in a string of Jewish attacks. A Jewish American tourist vandalized a monument of Jesus in the Old City in February, and Jewish youngsters defiled ancient Christian gravestones in a well-known Jerusalem cemetery in January.
The museum’s doors opened to the public at the planned time on Friday morning, almost 16 hours after the vandalism.