JERUSALEM: A video that shows ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on the ground beside a procession of foreign Christian worshippers carrying a wooden cross in the holy city of Jerusalem has ignited intense outrage and a flurry of condemnation in the Holy Land. The spitting incident, which the city's minority Chr
An Israeli flag flutters as the Dome of the Rock on the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Palestinians as Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem's Old City is seen in the background on Jan 24, 2020. JERUSALEM: A video that shows ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on the ground beside a procession of foreign Christian worshippers carrying a wooden cross in the holy city of Jerusalem has ignited intense outrage and a flurry of condemnation in the Holy Land.
Many say the government, with its powerful ultranationalist officials, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has emboldened Jewish extremists and created a sense of impunity. There are roughly 15,000 Christians in Jerusalem today, the majority of them Palestinians who consider themselves living under occupation.
The spitting scene, captured on Monday by a reporter at Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, shows a group of foreign pilgrims beginning their procession through the limestone labyrinth of the Old City, home to holiest ground in Judaism, the third-holiest shrine in Islam and major Christian sites.
“Perhaps under the influence of Western culture we have somewhat forgotten what Christianity is,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter."I think millions of Jews who suffered in exile from the Crusades ... will never forget."