Anti-Israel vandals who also hate the Israeli government have damaged dozens of Jewish prayer books at the Western Wall Plaza, but the Western Wall Heritage Foundation says it has not seen any of the damaged texts.
The organization is responsible for the operation of the Western Wall Plaza and its related archaeological treasures.
“We heard about the incident, and since then we have been conducting sample checks of the siddurim in the prayer area, but we have not found such prayer books, so we also don’t have pictures of the books that were mentioned,” a spokesperson for the organization told JewishPress.com in an internet exchange.
“We are doing everything we can to eradicate this phenomenon, and if we find the person who defaced the prayer books, we will, of course, hand the case over to the police for investigation,” the spokesperson added.
The statement was issued after JewishPress.com reached out a second time to ask about the security footage — but in the above response as well, the organization has sidestepped the issue of security footage until repeatedly pressed.
“The security photos will not help us in this matter, 12 million visitors come to the Western Wall during the year, it is not known when someone managed to insert such a prayer book, or wrote about an prayer book they found at the Western Wall. And so, as I wrote, if we catch that person, of course we will immediately turn it over to the police,” the spokesperson finally said.
As I told you, we currently have no way to check who it was, but if it is indeed a recurring phenomenon involving the same person, we will pass it on to the police,” he added.
Nameless perpetrators have been using black markers to write vicious messages in the prayer books against the existence of the State of Israel, and against the Israeli government. Photos of the damaged prayers books and their evil messages were published by the Ynet news outlet.
“The Land of Israel is holy, the People of Israel are holy, the State of Israel must be erased,” was one of the messages scrawled in heavy black marker, in fluent Hebrew script. “The Devil’s state will be erased for eternity,” proclaimed another.
“The photos you saw are not ours,” said Foundation spokesperson. “What you saw in the media is not our photo; we have not come across such siddurim in the tests we carry out all the time.”
The head of the Libyan Jewish community in Jerusalem, Rabbi Levi Nahum, said he holds daily prayers at the Western Wall and told told Ynet that of the 70 prayer books he had placed at the sacred site for public use, “many” were badly damaged. Some had pages ripped out – pages on which there were prayers for the wellbeing of the State of Israel and IDF soldiers.
Nahum added that he demanded that footage from the area’s security cameras be reviewed to identify the perpetrators, but no action was taken.
It’s not clear whether the Western Wall Heritage Foundation asked Rabbi Nahum for the damaged siddurim.
