Today on Sukkot, a religious Jewish man spat next to Christian pilgrims praying outside the Armenian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, at Station IV of the Via Dolorosa, where Jesus meets His Mother.
Armenian Guard Confronts Israeli Jewish Man Trying To Urinate On St. James Monastery In Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter
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An Armenian guard confronted an Israeli Jewish man at the wall of St. James Monastery in Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter and forced him away as he tried to urinate on it. Jerusalemite-Armenian journalist Kegham Balian published the surveillance footage..
The timestamp places the incident at roughly 10:31 p.m. on Saturday, September 26. A man in a white shirt approaches the wall beside the entrance before the guard reaches him and pulls him back.
"We are getting tired of this. Our home is becoming unrecognizable. Every day there is another incident, each more vile than the last," Balian said. "We are not a toilet. Our dignity is constantly undermined. Enough. Stop."
St. James is the seat of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the residence of the Armenian Patriarch.
On August 2, six Israelis, five minors and one adult, spat at the monastery entrance, banged on its gates and threw stones at the compound and at the window of an Armenian woman filming them from her home, shouting, "Get back inside, you daughter of a whore!" Three were brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, three were released under restrictive conditions and barred from the Old City for 15 days, and four more were arrested at the end of August.
On August 16, Israel Police arrested a man in his 20s over the vandalism of St. Anthony's Church in Jaffa, where officers found smashed statues and broken crosses.
On Yom Kippur, a 9-year-old Armenian Christian boy named William was pepper-sprayed on Mamilla Boulevard near Jaffa Gate while riding his bicycle. His mother said the attacker signaled him to stop with one hand hidden behind his back and sprayed him after hearing him speak English. Police closed the case almost immediately, reopened it after Israeli Channel 13 aired the story, and arrested a 22-year-old from the West Bank settlement of Ganei Modi'in on Sunday evening.
The Religious Freedom Data Center, an independent Israeli watchdog founded in June 2023 by the scholar Yisca Harani, recorded 50 anti-Christian incidents between April and June 2025. Sixty-four percent occurred within the Old City, and half of those were centered around the Armenian Patriarchate, making it the most frequently targeted Christian site in Jerusalem. The Rossing Center's 2025 report documented 155 incidents, including 61 physical assaults, 52 attacks on church property, 28 incidents of verbal harassment, and 14 cases of vandalism against Christian signs and symbols.
The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem dates to the 7th century, and Armenian presence in the city is documented from at least the 4th. The Armenian community of the Old City numbered 1,598 in 1967 and now stands below 1,000.
BREAKING: Israeli Police Arrest Suspect In Pepper-Spray Attack On 9-Year-Old Armenian Boy In Jerusalem, Days After Closing The Case
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Israeli police arrested a 22-year-old suspect on Sunday evening over the pepper-spray attack on William, a 9-year-old Armenian Christian boy from Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter, days after the case had been closed without charges. The suspect is a resident of Ganei Modi'in, a Haredi-majority Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Jerusalemite-Armenian journalist Kegham Balian first reported the arrest, citing William's parents.
Police said the suspect had been staying in northern Israel in recent days and was located through intelligence work before officers arrested him there. Investigators had returned to the scene and reconstructed the attack together with William's father. The suspect was taken to a police station in Jerusalem for overnight questioning.
"Israel Police views with great gravity acts of violence and bullying against minors, especially those carried out with a nationalist or racist motive," police said.
William was riding his bicycle on Mamilla Boulevard near Jaffa Gate on Yom Kippur, listening to music through headphones, when he was attacked. His mother told Haaretz that a man she estimated to be around 30 signaled her son to stop while keeping one hand behind his back. "He planned it in advance. William stopped, took off his headphones and said something to him in English, and then the man sprayed him." She said the man attacked after realizing her son did not speak Hebrew.
Israeli Channel 13 journalist Yossi Eli, who first reported the incident, said the attackers approached the child with threats and demanded he remove his headphones. After William complied, they heard him speaking English, and one said "No English, Jews!" before spraying him.
William was treated by paramedics in an ambulance, and Channel 13 aired the footage on Friday. In the video circulated afterward, his mother can be heard comforting him and reassuring him that his younger sister Arev was safe.
The family filed a police complaint after William was treated at the hospital. Police closed the case almost immediately. Asked by Haaretz to explain, police said the file was closed "after all investigative directions were examined and in accordance with the evidentiary basis that was formed."
"I promised him the police were trying to catch him, and then they announced they closed the case," William's mother said. "I got a slap in the face."
The morning after Channel 13 broadcast the story, police called the family and asked to question William again. The investigation was reopened, and the arrest followed on Sunday evening.
Channel 13 reported that it was the second time William had been attacked.
William told Channel 13 that he now makes a point of wearing a helmet on his way home from school. Asked what he wanted, he said: "I just want him to be in prison."
"We, as a Jewish people who survived the Holocaust and suffer from anti-Semitism in the world, should be ashamed of the hatred that extremists show towards Christians," Eli said.
George Deek, Israel's Special Envoy to the Christian World, announced the arrest publicly on Monday. Deek was appointed to the newly created post on April 23, 2026, after serving as Israel's ambassador to Azerbaijan.
"Israel takes violence against Christians seriously. And when the victim is a child, there can be no excuses and no looking the other way," Deek said. "Hatred must be condemned, and those responsible will be held accountable." He added that he hoped William and his family felt the support of people across Israel who were appalled by the attack.
On August 2, six Israelis, five minors and one adult, spat at the entrance of the Armenian Cathedral of St. James and threw stones at the compound and at the window of an Armenian woman filming them from her home. Four more were arrested over that attack at the end of August.
The Religious Freedom Data Center, an independent Israeli watchdog founded in June 2023 by the scholar Yisca Harani, recorded 50 anti-Christian incidents between April and June 2025. Sixty-four percent took place within the Old City, and half of those were centered around the Armenian Patriarchate, making it the most frequently targeted Christian site in Jerusalem. The Rossing Center's 2025 report documented 155 incidents in total, including 61 physical assaults, 52 attacks on church property, 28 incidents of verbal harassment, and 14 cases of vandalism against Christian signs and symbols.
The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem dates to the 7th century, and Armenian presence in the city is documented from at least the 4th. The Armenian community of the Old City numbered 1,598 in 1967 and now stands below 1,000.
🇦🇲🇦🇿 6 years to the day since the outbreak of the Second Artsakh War, in which the native Armenians fought for their ancient land against encroaching Azerbaijan...
A couple of photos of street murals that I found during my time in Yerevan in 2024.
#Armenia#Artsakh#Azerbaijan
🇦🇲🇦🇿 6 years to the day since the outbreak of the Second Artsakh War, in which the native Armenians fought for their ancient land against encroaching Azerbaijan...
A couple of photos of street murals that I found during my time in Yerevan in 2024.
#Armenia#Artsakh#Azerbaijan
The families of our fallen Heroes need our support. We have been able to provide 15 families forcibly displaced from Artsakh with a permanent home in Armenia. Support by visiting Lorik Humanitarian Fund @lorikfund.
#artsakh#armenia#lorikfund
Πόσα έθνη της Μικράς Ασίας, (Κομμαγηνή) και πόσοι αυτοκράτορες του Βυζαντίου (Ισαυροι, Μακεδόνες, Λασκαριδες) ήταν ΑΡΜΈΝΙΟΙ; https://t.co/YLB41o0I3f ΕΠΙΦΟΒΗ ΙΣΤΟΡΊΑ
BREAKING: An Israeli Jewish man was caught attempting to urinate on the grounds of St. James Monastery in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, before an Armenian guard intervened.
The incident comes amid a continuing wave of harassment targeting the Armenian Christian community and its holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City.
In August, six religious Jews, five of them minors, were arrested after spitting on the entrance of St. James Monastery, banging on its gates and throwing stones at the compound. In September, Israeli police began stationing officers outside the monastery in an attempt to stop repeated spitting incidents, but further cases were documented even after the deployment.
The latest incident follows another recent attack involving Jerusalem’s Armenian community. Earlier this month, a 9-year-old Armenian Christian boy was pepper-sprayed while riding his bicycle near the Old City.
“We are getting tired of this. Our home is becoming unrecognizable. Every day there is another incident, each more vile than the last.
We are not a toilet. Our dignity is constantly undermined. Enough. Stop.”
301 correspondent @kbalian90
9.27.2020 🇦🇲🕊️
September 27th marks the 6th anniversary of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
3,825 Armenian Christian soldiers were martyred in defense of their nation.
150,000 Armenians ethnically cleansed. Forced to leave their ancient homeland.
Never Forget. 🕊️
The only thing Turkish barbarians deserve is to be send back to their real homeland.
And Ataturk is likely suffering in hell, because he had a major role in the genocides against native Christians of Anatolia. Paradox should not be coerced by the terrorist state of Turkey.