TEL AVIV – Israel on Thursday indicted a Jewish man over a violent attack on a nun near Jerusalem’s Old City last week, the latest in a string of high-profile incidents targeting Christians and religious symbols.
The indictment identified the man as Yona Schreiber, 36, from the Israeli-occupied West Bank settlement of Peduel. It comes after a video of the assault received wide condemnation from foreign and Christian leaders.
Schreiber was arrested last week, and Israel’s attorney general recommended extending his detention for the duration of the case. Schreiber’s lawyer refused to speak to an Associated Press journalist at the court.
According to the indictment, Schreiber attacked a woman in Jerusalem, just outside of the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, because she was wearing a habit that identified her as a Catholic nun. He pushed her and then kicked her while she was lying on the ground, and also attacked a passerby who attempted to halt his attack, the indictment said.
Schreiber is being charged with simple assault, and assault motivated by religious hostility.
Olivier Poquillon, the director of the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, said that the nun was a researcher at the school. He called the attack an “act of sectarian violence” in an X post.
Religious groups have documented a rise in acts of harassment and violence against Christian pilgrims and clergy as well as Palestinian Christian residents, including assaults and spitting, often by extremist ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The arrest comes as Israeli treatment of religious minorities is under scrutiny, weeks after police limited access for holiday worship in Jerusalem’s holiest sites because of security concerns during the Iran war.
Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was prohibited from holding a private Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday, the first time in centuries Catholic leaders have been prevented from observing Palm Sunday at the church. After the uproar, Jerusalem police eventually worked out a compromise for a limited Easter Mass at the church.
Israel also drew international criticism after a soldier photographed himself bludgeoning a fallen statue of Jesus on the cross with an ax in southern Lebanon. Israeli leaders later disavowed the incident and said that he would be reprimanded, and assisted local residents in replacing the statue.
The Israeli military also opened an investigation into a soldier photographed shoving a cigarette into the mouth of the statue of the Virgin Mary, which was apparently photographed several weeks ago. The military said that it views the incident with “utmost severity.” And there have been questions and concern about Israeli soldiers bulldozing parts of a Catholic convent in southern Lebanon.
