US vacationer’s lawyer claims “Jerusalem syndrome” made him wreck two historical Roman statues
An American visiting Jerusalem has been arrested after smashing two historical Roman statues on the Israel Museum on Thursday night. Police stated the suspect had referred to as the broken items “idolatrous and opposite to the Torah,” the primary 5 books of the Hebrew Bible.
“It is a stunning case of destruction of cultural heritage. We view with nice concern the truth that non secular extremists take such motion,” stated Eli Escusido, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
In accordance with Escusido, one of many broken statues is a marble depiction of Minerva from the second century, found in 1978 at Tel Naharon close to Beit She’an. The second statue is a griffin holding a wheel of destiny, representing the Roman-Egyptian deity Nemesis, which was present in 1957 within the northern Negev desert.
Police have recognized the perpetrator as a 40-year-old “radical Jewish American vacationer,” in response to AP, however haven’t offered his title. The defendant has been ordered to endure a psychiatric analysis.
Lawyer Nick Kaufman denied that his consumer had acted out of non secular fanaticism, nevertheless. He blamed the “Jerusalem syndrome.” In accordance with the Occasions of Israel, the situation entails “religiously-themed delusions or psychosis triggered by a go to to Jerusalem,” impacts guests to the town thought-about holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, and “normally resolves upon departure from Israel.”
The museum reopened on the recurrently scheduled time on Friday morning. Museum officers declined to supply an estimate of the damages or the worth of the statues, saying solely that they’ve been despatched to be restored.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced “derogatory conduct” in the direction of any faith, after a video surfaced on-line displaying ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting at Christians in Jerusalem’s Previous Metropolis. 5 folks have been arrested in relation to the incident.
In February this yr, one other Jewish-American vacationer pulled down and broken a statue of Jesus contained in the Church of the Flagellation, on the Through Dolorosa in Jerusalem’s Previous Metropolis. A month prior, a number of Christian tombstones on the Mount Zion cemetery have been vandalized by two Jewish youths.
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