This story originally appeared in the JC Israel Briefing. You can sign up to receive the briefing daily here.
An Israeli man has been charged with a religiously motivated hate crime after attacking a French Catholic nun in Jerusalem’s Old City.
According to Reuters, prosecutors said Yonah Shreiber, 36, was charged yesterday with “assault causing actual injury motivated by hostility toward the public on the grounds of religion”, after CCTV footage showed a nun being shoved to the ground and kicked near Mount Zion.
The April 28 attack sparked condemnation from Christian leaders and diplomats, coming amid growing reports of harassment of clergy and pilgrims in Jerusalem.
Footage appeared to show the attacker, wearing a kippah and tsitsit, chasing the nun from behind before pushing her violently to the ground. He then appeared to kick a passerby who attempted to intervene.
The nun, who works at the French Biblical and Archaeological School in Jerusalem, suffered bruising to her face and leg, according to the indictment. Police arrested a suspect a day after the assault.
The attack drew swift criticism from church figures across the Holy Land. Greek Orthodox Archbishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna described it in comments carried by Reuters video as a “purely racist act”.
This story originally appeared in the JC Israel Briefing. You can sign up to receive the briefing daily here.
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