Arab Teenagers Arrested for Vandalizing Kevorim On Har Hazeisim

Eleven Arab teens are under arrest for allegedly vandalizing 20 kevorim on har Hazeisim. The suspects, residents of east Yerushalayim and who range in age from 12-14, were apprehended over the last several days for the vandalism which took place over the last several weeks in the Yemenite section of the bais hakevaros, Yerushalayim police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. The teenagers have confessed to breaking tombstones, drawing graffiti on the kevorim and stealing the metal holders for yahrtzeit candles in the after-school attacks, he said.The suspects, who carried out the attacks out of “nationalistic” motives, will be indicted for the vandalism, the police said, with more arrests in the case expected this week.

The cemetery on Har Hazeisim , the most ancient Jewish burial ground in the world, has been the target of repeated attacks of Arab vandalism in the past.

In recent years, hundreds of Jewish graves have been vandalized at the cemetery, located adjacent to several Arab neighborhoods, with upkeep and maintenance at the forlorn site heretofore virtually nonexistent due in part to a lack of funding, burial officials have said.

A three-year-old Yerushalayim municipal plan for the cemetery upkeep was never realized, and the site has continued to languish under the oversight of an interministerial committee.

The five-year NIS 100 million city project would see the restoration of tens of thousands of graves and tombstones in the dilapidated cemetery, the installation of a 24-hour closed-circuit security system at the site, as well as the establishment of an information center at the cemetery entrance.

Earlier this month, Religious Affairs Minister Rabbi Yaakov Margi of Shas requested to take control of the cemetery’s management, with new plans under way for its upkeep.

Among the 150,000 graves on site include those of the neviim Zechariah, Chagi, and Malachi.

{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel/JPost}