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.
STOP DESTROYING HISTORY BECAUSE OF YOUR SUPERSTITIONS, ASSHOLES!
Also, there simply isn’t a Jewish rule about defacing non-Jewish idols. It is 100% completely, utterly irrelevant to the Jewish religion when a goy declares a statue to be of their deity, e.g. Athena. The only relevant law in Judaism bans jews from worshipping idols.