- cross-posted to:
- news@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- news@beehaw.org
Israeli police have arrested an American tourist at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem after he hurled works of art to the floor, defacing two second-century Roman statues.
The vandalism late Thursday raised questions about the safety of Israel’s priceless collections and stirred concern about a rise in attacks on cultural heritage in Jerusalem.
Police identified the suspect as a radical 40-year-old Jewish American tourist and said initial questioning suggested he smashed the statues because he considered them “to be idolatrous and contrary to the Torah.”
The man’s lawyer, Nick Kaufman, denied that he had acted out of religious fanaticism.
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Just another American religious nutcase. The only surprise here is that he is not an evangelical nut job for a change.
I hope he gets to pay a badrillion dollar or they make him in to an art piece or something.
Why is there no pictures of the statues?
New display at the museum: Vandal in Carbonite; mixed media, 2023
Why is there no pictures of the statues?
Because they were smashed, silly
Athena and Athens by proxy are probably older then the Torah, jackass. Shesh some people are just fucking idiots.
Anyways, the Athena imagery from the ancient times is always so cool. She was one of the gods that actually looked out of the people, why would you want to destroy something dedicated to her?
Arachne and Medusa says WTF do you mean Athena looked out for people? Athena was petty AF
Lel, still salty about Titus & Hadrian I see.
why are they always Americans? if i ever travel abroad, I’m gonna say I’m Canadian. Heck, I’m already a Habs fan, I say ‘eh’ in conversation, and drink Tim Hortons coffee, I’m halfway there!
Its because of where you hear news.
For instance, if you got japanese news and hear which tourists destroy shrines for instance, its usually asian tourists.
Sounds like the religious fanatic part is more relevant than the nationality
you’d think that, but they didn’t say ‘a jewish man’ or ‘a jew’, or just ‘a man’, and they mentioned another American who did the same thing. So Nationality matters.
You might want to reread the article, and how it’s specifically noted they suspect the cause to be fanaticism. Also, all the other cases mentioned were perpetrated by Jews as well, and the context hints that it’s due to the ultra conservative faction.
It’s not always Americans, for example the kid who cut down the tree at Hadrian’s wall last week was English.
@greaterthanstupid ISIL bulldozed and dynamited World Heritage sites to rubble. The Taliban blew up the Bamiyan Buddahs. It’s not always Americans.
Yeah I mean, that’s generally what terrorist organizations do.
We’re referring to a single man here lol
America doesn’t practice secularism basically at all. As a result, religious fanaticism plays a huge role in American politics and thus American mentality.
I honestly hardly ever meet american tourists that are rude or behaving “wrong”. I met one old maga guy some time ago that lost his shit when no one spoke american in a super remote petrol station in the middle of Switzerland, and i refused to talk to him.
Pretty much everyone else was almost too nice. If you want to generalize really bad behaving tourists, i would look in the direction of china.As an American international traveler, that’s great to hear! I don’t know why, but I’m still pleasantly surprised when I’m warmly accepted.
There’s usually a bit of a quiz on politics first. Like a “is this one of the rabid ones?” kind of side eye. But that’s cleared up quickly.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The vandalism late Thursday raised questions about the safety of Israel’s priceless collections and stirred concern about a rise in attacks on cultural heritage in Jerusalem.
Police identified the suspect as a radical 40-year-old Jewish American tourist and said initial questioning suggested he smashed the statues because he considered them “to be idolatrous and contrary to the Torah.”
Museum photos showed the marble head of the goddess Athena knocked off its pedestal onto the floor and a statue of a pagan deity shattered into fragments.
The Israeli government expressed alarm over the defacement, which officials also attributed to Jewish iconoclasm in obedience to early prohibitions against idolatry.
“This is a shocking case of the destruction of cultural values,” said Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
On Friday morning, about 16 hours after the defacement at the museum, the doors opened to the public at the regularly scheduled time.
The original article contains 455 words, the summary contains 150 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
