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The arrests follow intense outrage sparked by a video of Orthodox Jews spitting beside a group of foreign Christian worshippers carrying a wooden cross in Jerusalem. The pilgrims came under attack at the beginning of their procession through the route believed to be taken by Jesus Christ before crucifixion in the Old City, which is home to the holiest ground in Judaism, and the third-holiest shrine in Islam and major Christian sites. As if the incident wasn’t unholy enough, an ultranationalist leader and former adviser to a lawmaker in the governing coalition, Elisha Yered, defended the perpetrators, explaining that spitting at Christian clergy and at churches was an ancient Jewish custom. In turn, members of the minority Christian community lambasted the spitting as the latest example of growing harassment and intimidation from Jewish ultranationalists, particularly since Netanyahu’s most conservative government in history took office late last year.
