Muslims took advantage of privileges during the month of Ramadan at the Ma’arat HaMachpelah (Patriarchs’ Cave) in Hevron on Friday to rip off mezuzahs from a Jewish prayer room and vandalize the site.
Jews were barred from the holy site this past Friday because of the Muslim’s holy month of Ramadan. Muslim vandals “celebrated” the opportunity of the absence of Jews on the eve of the Sabbath Friday night to rip mezuzahs off the doorposts of prayer halls and damage property.
Israeli radio and print media routinely headline any “price tag” vandalism of Arab property or mosques, but when Deputy Minister of Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan describe the desecration, the news broadcaster suggested, “Isn’t that just graffiti?”
Unlike the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Cave is used by Jews and Muslims with each religion having its own prayer halls. There are 10 days a year when “Olam Yitzchak” is barred to Muslims and is opened to Jews, and there are 10 days a year, such as last Friday, when Jews are prohibited from praying at the Patriarchs’ Cave.
Rabbi Ben Dahan visited the Patriarchs’ Cave on Sunday and said, “I cannot understand how Palestinians, who have come to pray, could commit such an ugly act. The Arab leaders should condemn these actions.”
The Muslims sabotaged irrigation systems, tore out plants and flowers, damaged furniture and left filth everywhere as reminder of their visit.
In another anti-Semitic incident, hikers who visited the “Avraham Spring” on Friday discovered that anti-Semites has scrawled swastikas in the area.
Harel Zehira, a youth group leader who discovered the vandalism, told Tazpit News Agency: “We were shocked by the spectacle. We immediately notified the security forces and worked to erase the vandalism.”
“There is no doubt that the collaboration between world Anti-Semitism and radical Islam is a dangerous phenomenon which should be eradicated,” Hevron Jewish community spokesman Noam Arnon told Tazpit.