Last Sunday, more than 30 tombstones were destroyed in the Protestant cemetery in occupied Jerusalem.  

According to a statement from the American Deer Land Research Institute (JUC), located next to the site, two people broke into the cemetery in the afternoon, smashed crosses, uprooted tombstones, smashed decorations, and then threw the rubble behind the fence. They were documented by security cameras.

The cemetery was founded in 1848, and is maintained by local Lutheran and Anglican groups. Among the graves that were attacked were three graves of British police officers from the Mandate period, and members of the Protestant sects, including the grave of Samuel Gobat, the second Protestant bishop of Jerusalem and the buyer of the land on which the cemetery is located. His grave has been vandalized several times in the past.

In recent years, Christian clergy in Jerusalem have suffered harassment and attacks by settlers. Last November, several soldiers from the Givati Brigade were questioned on suspicion of spitting on a procession of Armenian priests in the Old City of Jerusalem.

A member of a Christian sect, who requested to remain anonymous, said: “As a community we are very concerned. This comes against the backdrop of the phenomenon of spitting on priests, and there was a case of assault in the Old City.” According to him, they feel that they are “trying to diminish these issues and not give them political attention.”

The “Light Card” organization, which is active against the operations of “price tag” gangs, stated that it “condemns with disgust the desecration of the cemetery, which joins the numerous hate crimes committed over the years in the Church of the Rest of the Virgin, the Dajani family cemetery, and the religious school adjacent to the Orthodox Church.”