Jewish worshippers in Jerusalem's Western Wall reported in recent months that anonymous perpetrators have vandalized public Jewish prayer books. Messages written in the past week include "The land of Israel is holy, the people of Israel are holy, the State of Israel must be erased." Another claimed that "the Devil's state will be erased for eternity."
Reports of the disturbing messages being added to the prayer books began earlier this summer. Rabbi Levi Nahum, head of the Libyan Jewish community in Jerusalem who holds daily prayers there noticed that out of the 70 prayer books he had brought to the site and had left for public use, many had been completely vandalized. In some, only the pages containing prayers for the well-being of the state and the IDF soldiers were torn out.
Nahum demanded that footage from security cameras monitoring the area be examined to identify those responsible for repeatedly damaging the prayer books but no such actions has been taken yet.
"We appealed to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation to use the resources at its disposal," a worshiper said. "They should review the footage, identify who's approaching the area where the prayer books are kept and reveal the identity of the vandal or vandals who are repeatedly damaging the prayer books. The information should then be passed to the police, who will hold them accountable. This is an attack on soldiers, the state and on a place meant to be open for everyone."
"The Western Wall Heritage Foundation strongly condemns any act of vandalism against prayer books and is making every effort to eradicate this phenomenon," The foundation said in a statement.