‘Holocaust in Gaza’: Western Wall graffiti suspect sent to psychiatric ward after desecrating holy site

A man who is suspected of defacing the Western Wall in Jerusalem with a graffito reading, “There is a Holocaust in Gaza” was sent to a psychiatric ward on Monday, Israeli media reported.

In the morning, passersby noticed graffiti at the Western Wall and Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue criticizing Israel’s conduct in the Gaza War.

At the Western Wall, another graffiti claimed that “children are dying from hunger.” The spray-painted messages were scribbled on the ancient wall in the egalitarian prayer area south of the main prayer plaza, called Ezrat Israel.

Israel Police later stated that a 27-year-old suspect was arrested and that the police would request to extend his detention.

“The police intend to compile the evidence against him in connection with these acts.” A court judge later rejected the request, calling the incident “a sad case” and ordering the suspect to be hospitalized in a psychiatric ward.

The judge also rejected a request to ban the suspect from visiting the holy site, stating, “I do not ban Jews from the Western Wall,” according to Ynet News.

The news outlet also said that the suspect is from the ultra-Orthodox community, and that his parents informed Sephardi Chief Rabbi David Yosef that their son was mentally ill.

The man had already been detained in Tel Aviv last week after vandalizing a photo showing an IDF soldier who was killed in the war, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The incident caused considerable outrage especially among the religious community. Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, stated that “A holy place is not a place to express protests.”

“Those who are capable of defiling [the stones] with sickening antisemitic blood libels have forgotten what it means to be Jewish,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on 𝕏.

Chairman of the Blue and White opposition party, Benny Gantz, called the act of vandalism at “the holiest site for the Jewish people” a crime “against all of Israel.”

In the afternoon, Israel’s Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced that the message was removed from the ancient stones by conservation experts.

“The experts worked to remove the graffiti using materials that do not harm the surface of the stones,” said the IAA, and by mid-afternoon, the writing was removed entirely.

“Damage to antiquities sites constitutes a serious violation of the law and, of course, of our shared cultural heritage,” stated Ami Shahar, head of the IAA Conservation Division.

“The offense is all the more severe when it concerns the Western Wall – a site of immense historical, cultural, and religious significance.”