Police arrest 6 over incident of stone throwing, spitting at Armenian monastery in Jerusalem

Jerusalem Police arrested six people in connection with spitting and throwing stones at a church in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City over the weekend. 

The six religious Jews, including one adult and five minors, were arrested after police received a report of people spitting at the entrance of the St. James Monastery, banging on the door, and throwing stones at the compound, which is the home of the Armenian Patriarchate in Israel. 

A local Armenian journalist, Kegham Balian, wrote about the incident on his 𝕏 account. He said that after the perpetrators noticed an Armenian woman filming their actions, they began to throw stones at the window from which she was filming, while shouting insults. 

“Get back inside, you daughter of a whore!” the youth shouted at the women, according to Balian’s testimony. 

🚨BREAKING: On Sunday at around 1:00 a.m., six Jewish Israelis attacked the entrance to the Saint James Monastery in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem.

They took turns spitting at the monastery entrance. When they noticed an Armenian woman filming the incident from her home,… pic.twitter.com/kXHgO0JJDK

— Kegham Balian (@kbalian90) August 2, 2026

According to a police statement, the officers were dispatched to the scene quickly, where they found and arrested the six. 

Three of the suspects were later released and banned from the entering the Old City for 15 days. The remaining three were brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, where police have requested an extension of their detention. 

“The Israel Police views all manifestations of violence and racism with the utmost severity and will continue to act decisively to locate those responsible, bring them to justice, and safeguard public safety,” the police statement said. 

Balian confirmed on social media that the police responded quickly to the incident, upon receiving the notification. 

Incidents of spitting on churches or at Christian clergy are not rare in the Old City, and the Jerusalem Municipality has been working to reduce them by responding quickly to reports, and pursuing fines or other punitive measures against perpetrators of such harassment. 

Over the past several years, Christian clerics, primarily Catholic, Orthodox, and Armenian priests and nuns, have complained of religious Jews, primarily youth, cursing or spitting on them as they passed through the streets of the Old City. 

Christian clerics have also complained that Israeli police take little action for complaints of spitting incidents compared to higher profile incidents, such as vandalism, where police often respond and make arrests quickly. 

Several of the clerics say the incidents appear to have increased following the entry of the coalition government in January 2023. That month saw an incident of vandalism targeting a Protestant Christian cemetery on Mount Zion, which was followed several days later by an incident of vandalism in which somebody wrote “Death to Christians,” “Death to Arabs and Gentiles,” “Death to Armenians,” and “Revenge,” on the walls of the monastery. 

The rise in incidents was also noted by an Israeli NGO, the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, which documented a rise in attacks on Christians and Christian sites in 2023. 

“Based on compiled records of known attacks in previous years, 2023 also witnessed a notable increase in both severe property and physical assaults,” the center said in a report released on the phenomenon. 

However, several prominent leaders and members of the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox communities have begun speaking out against the phenomenon of spitting. 

In April, the Foreign Ministry announced the appointment of George Deek as special envoy to the Christian world, following several incidents of IDF soldiers seen desecrating Christian statues in southern Lebanon. 

President Isaac Herzog has repeatedly condemned such acts, even addressing the topic in a recent Fox News interview. 

“First of all, I have huge respect for the Christian communities in the Holy Land,” Herzog told Fox News, noting that he even visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. 

“I speak to all the heads of the churches,” Herzog continued, adding, “the Christian communities are a top priority in Israel.” 

He said Israel is “aggressively” dealing with incidents of harassment. 

“I know of cases where there was tension, and we are dealing with it aggressively and there’s a major reduction in moments of friction,” Herzog stated.