Police arrested on Thursday afternoon a Bedouin youth on suspicion of destroying a Jewish cemetery at Moshav Nevatim in southern Israel while commenting on the act on social media.
The 15-year-old, along with others, recorded himself damaging, breaking and laying gravestones in the moshav cemetery Wednesday and uploaded the video to Tik Tok.
The tombstones in Nevatim
(Photo: The Regavim movement)
Another suspicion seen in the clip uploaded to Tik Tok has been identified but has not yet been captured.
His stomach was arrested after he was identified with his clothes, the same as he would have been when he was charged.
Religious Affairs Minister Yaakov Avitan said he was “surprised to hear about the humiliating vandalism that took place in Nevatim, breaking and destroying gravestones while reporting on the act. and banging. “
(Video: The Regavim movement, Facebook)
“This is a terrible hate crime and we don’t have to move on without it,” he said.
The pro-settler Regavim, who complained to police, noted that the fence around the cemetery has been painted by spraying with Arab graffiti a few weeks ago, and sections of the fence have been torn. go away.
Yoel Batalbi, who has lived in Nevatim for the past 13 years, said there had always been heinous criminal activity in the area, but the desecration of the grave was the thing. hardest he suffered during his time in the mosque.
“We live in a beautiful area with an amazing community, a five minute drive from Be’er Sheva, and every night we wake up to gunfire and hurling stones at watch cars and homes. “We feel completely abandoned,” he said.
Torn down a wall near the cemetery in Nevatim
(Photo: The Regavim movement)
Batalbi said Nevatim residents quickly realized it was their cemetery when they saw the names of the graves in the video.
“Shameless,” he panicked. “How much hatred do you need to have to destroy a gravestone, and this has nothing to do with religion. You have to be filled with hatred to do this.”
He criticized the police for not taking enough action against the rampant crime in the area.
“I would expect the police to take more action, set up embassies or install cameras, but they will hardly even try to deal with it,” Batalbi said.