“CONTRARY TO THE TORAH”: American Tourist Arrested for Smashing Ancient Roman Statues in Wild Macha’ah

Israeli police have arrested an American tourist at the Israel Museum in Yerushalayim after he hurled works of art to the floor, defacing two second-century Roman statues.

The vandalism took place late Thursday.

Police identified the suspect as a radical 40-year-old Jewish American tourist and said initial questioning suggested he smashed the statues because he considered them “to be idolatrous and contrary to the Torah.”

The attorney representing the man, Nick Kaufman, refuted any suggestion of religious extremism on his client’s part. Instead, Kaufman asserted that the tourist was suffering from a mental disorder known as the Jerusalem syndrome, a condition that psychiatrists believe is triggered by the city’s religious significance to Christians, Jews, and Muslims. This syndrome is known to make foreign visitors believe they are biblical figures.

The defendant has been mandated to undergo a psychological assessment, and his identity remains undisclosed due to a court-ordered restriction.

The Israel Museum, renowned for its displays of archaeology, fine arts, and Jewish art and culture, described the vandalism on Thursday as an “unsettling and uncommon occurrence” and expressed its disapproval of all forms of violence while hoping for no future incidents of this nature.

Photographs from the museum revealed the marble head of a statue knocked off its pedestal and a statue of a pagan deity broken into pieces. The damaged statues are currently undergoing restoration, with the museum declining to disclose their value or the cost of the damage.

{Matzav.com}