Mezuzah scrolls on the doors of an oncology department at the Nahariya Medical Center were found desecrated during a routine inspection on Tuesday.
The parchment scrolls upon which the Shema and other sacred passages are carefully written by a Torah scribe were missing. In their place, someone had inserted a paper containing radical Islamic hate.
“All Jews are liars and have no religion; they are murderers and terrorists. Death to the Jews,” the message read in Hebrew. On the back of the paper, the Arabic-language message read: “There is no God but Allah. Muhammad is God’s messenger. Islam is the solution.”
Nahariya Mayor Yehoshua Maitlis expressed horror and disbelief that such an incident could occur.
“It’s impossible for something like this to happen in the Jewish State,” he said. “We live here with mutual respect for all faiths and this is an event that damages the delicate fabric between all religions here in the region.
Professor Masad Barhoum, director of the hospital, immediately ordered an inspection of every mezuzah in the hospital and filed a complaint with Israel Police.
Nahariya Medical Center provides medical care to some 600,000 residents in northwestern Israel.
Following the horrific 2020 explosion that leveled the Port of Beirut and half of Lebanon’s capital city, the hospital reached out to Lebanese officials and the United Nations to offer medical support, as did other Israeli hospitals.
