Hevron Cemetery Desecrated Over Sabbath
Pastor Dale Morgan
Hevron Cemetery Desecrated Over Sabbath*
by Ezra HaLevi
(IsraelNN.com) Hevron’s ancient Jewish cemetery was vandalized over the
Sabbath.
The Menuchah Rachel Beit Midrash in the Chabad section of the cemetery
was broken into and damaged. Gravestones were desecrated, mezuzahs
(parchment posted on doorposts in accordance with Biblical command)
ripped out of their posts and other holy articles destroyed.
Equipment and furniture were also stolen from the site. Hevron police
have launched an investigation into the incident.
At the beginning of the civil year, three graves in the cemetery’s
Sephardic section were desecrated – two gravestones removed and one
doused with paint.
Hevron spokesman David Wilder told Arutz-7 that the most disturbing of
all the targets damaged by the vandals was the grave of IDF soldier
Elazar Leibovitch, who was murdered on the 17th of Av, 5762. The vandals
damaged the military gravestone and then left the carcass of a turtle
lying on it. Three other gravestones were also damaged.
“This is not the first time that Arabs have entered the cemetery and
desecrated it,” Wilder said. “They steal whatever they are able to, cut
through the fence surrounding it, and even steal the memorial windows.”
Wilder says that despite repeated urgent requests from the local
community and religious council, the IDF refuses to guard the site. “For
years we have been asking for protection for the cemetery, but the IDF
says that there isn't the manpower for it,” Wilder says.
Hevron’s Jewish community is scheduled to meet to discuss its response
to the ongoing desecration of Jewish graves in the city.