Ha’aretz Israeli newspaper, on Thursday, reported that about 30 graves were vandalized two weeks ago, in the cemetery of Beit Jmal monastery, near Jerusalem.
The monastery monks discovered the destruction of the tombs yesterday, saying the concrete crosses on the graves were taken down.
The old cemetery is located about half a kilometer from the monastery building, so people do not visit it often. After the monks discovered the vandalism, monastery officials filed a complaint with Israeli police.
In an interview with Haaretz, Father Antonio Scududo estimated that this work took time, effort and even the use of tools, because all the crosses were cast concrete. “I do not know who did it, as it seems,” he said.
For its part, the Christian Islamic Commission for the support of Jerusalem and holy sites today condemned the attack on the cemetery of the monastery, desecration of the sanctity of graves and religious symbols inside the cemetery, and breaking the tombstones and the number of 27 crucifix concrete.
Secretary-General of the Commission, Dr. Hanna Issa, the occupation authorities responsible for providing protection for religious places and places of worship, calling for the need to stop the aggression on sanctities and places of worship and respect for all religions.
PNN notes that the monastery was subjected to previous years of numerous attacks by settlers and attempts to burn and a line of racist slogans in Hebrew on the walls. Where the monastery was subjected to a similar attack on September 27, 1981, and the monastery was desecrated in March 2014 when anti-Christian slogans were written on its walls and another attack on 9/1/2016, breaking dozens of crosses in the cemetery.
