An arson attack damaged the Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate’s Theological Seminary of Jerusalem, not far from the Old Town. The fire devastated a hall of the seminar and some annexes. The unknown attackers also wrote blasphemous sentences against Christ on the walls, written in Hebrew.
The act was immediately condemned, by the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land.
The way in which the attack was carried out and the writings on the walls suggest that the attack against the Greek-Orthodox Seminary represents yet another episode in the long series of desecration and intimidation committed by groups of extremist Jewish settlers to the detriment of Christian monasteries, churches and cemeteries starting from February 2012. Since then, militant extremist groups close to the settler movement have also led attacks against mosques frequented by Palestinian Arabs of Muslim religion.
