Los Angeles Man Arrested in Defacing of Western Wall
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JERUSALEM — An American tourist from Los Angeles splashed red paint on Judaism’s holiest site in an apparent protest Thursday against Israeli policies, police said. He was quickly arrested.
The man arrived in the country earlier this month, police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. “He came to Israel two weeks ago and then decided that he didn’t like Israeli policies,” Ben-Ruby said.
The man, whose name was not disclosed, was being interrogated, police said. They gave his age as “about 60.”
In the hours after the attack at the Western Wall, which is part of the Temple Mount compound, workers tried to clean off the large spatters of paint while worshipers draped in white-and-blue prayer shawls continued to pray nearby.
The hilltop above the wall is revered by Jews as the site of their biblical temples and by Muslims as the Haram al Sharif, or “noble sanctuary,” Islam’s third-holiest site.
Control of the compound and other holy sites is one of the central sticking points in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
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