Vandals deface Western Wall with ‘Slaughter the Jews’

Someone vandalized a section of the sacred Western Wall in Jerusalem last weekend, scrawling “Slaughter the Jews” on the ancient rocks in Arabic, according to news reports.

The anti-Semitic phrase was spray-painted on the Kotel HaKatan, the “Little Western Wall,” on Saturday in the Old City of Jerusalem. A female was arrested in connection with the incident, but her name and exact age were not released.

An image posted on Twitter by Israel First TV shows the section of wall where that was written, but only after authorities covered it in red paint. 

The Little Western Wall is lesser known and can only be reached via a narrow alley in the Muslim Quarter, close to the Iron Gate of the Temple Mount. The Western Wall is considered a holy location by the Jewish people.

The defacing of the Western Wall occurred within the three weeks leading up to Tisha B’Av, a fasting day which commemorates the destruction of both the first and second temples and other disasters that happened to the Jews throughout history. The three weeks leading up to Tisha B’Av are called “within the straits” and are marked with solemnity.