Police arrest man suspected of attacking French nun at Jerusalem biblical site

Suspect detained after alleged Mount Zion attack that left sister with bruised face; amid outcry, police say they treat assaults on clergy with ‘utmost severity’

Police said Wednesday they had arrested a man suspected of assaulting a French nun in Jerusalem the previous day, saying they had a zero-tolerance policy on attacks against religious figures.

“The suspect, a 36-year-old male, was identified and subsequently arrested by police,” the force said in a statement, adding it viewed with “utmost severity” any violent act “driven by potentially racist motives and directed toward members of the clergy.”

The suspect was arrested on Tuesday, the same day as the attack.

Father Olivier Poquillon, director of Jerusalem’s French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, told AFP the 48-year-old nun was a researcher at the institution and does not wish to speak publicly.

“Yesterday, around 5:45 p.m. (1445 GMT) … she felt someone come up behind her and throw her with full force onto a rock,” Poquillon said, describing Tuesday’s attack.

“While the sister was on the ground, the man began to kick her repeatedly,” he said.

The assault occurred in front of the Cenacle, a building on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion considered holy to both Christians and Jews, the latter of whom regard it as the burial place of the biblical figure King David.

Footage shared by police showed bruises on the right side of the nun’s face.

The force also reported the arrest in an English-language post on X.

“Following a report of an assault against a nun in Jerusalem, officers responded immediately, launching an investigation that led to the arrest of a suspect,” police wrote on the social media platform.

“In a city sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, we remain committed to protecting all communities and ensuring those responsible for violence are held accountable,” the force said.

Police said they would request an extension of the suspect’s remand.

Contacted by AFP, police declined to disclose the suspect’s nationality, but said he was arrested “on suspicion of assault, with all potential motives under examination.”

On Tuesday, Poquillon had denounced the “gratuitous assault” in a statement on X, which was reposted by the French Consulate in Jerusalem with a statement “strongly condemning” the incident.

France said it “strongly condemns” the attack, and called for the perpetrator “to be brought to justice for this act and for justice to be served.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the “shameful act” in a statement on X, and said Jerusalem remained committed “to safeguarding freedom of religion and freedom of worship for all faiths.”

The faculty of humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which said the nun’s school was a partner organization, expressed “profound shock and condemnation” for the attack, and deplored its increasingly common nature.

“This is not an isolated incident, but part of a troubling pattern of rising hostility toward the Christian community and its symbols,” the statement read. “As scholars of history and culture, we view this violence as a direct assault on the fundamental values of Jerusalem – a city whose strength lies in its religious pluralism and its commitment to safe, open dialogue.”

A European diplomatic source in Jerusalem also noted that the assault “occurred in a context where anti-Christian acts have become commonplace, with insults and spitting by [Jewish] extremists targeting clergy in religious dress on a daily basis.”

Tensions have flared in recent weeks between Christian communities in Israel and the government, with police briefly blocking top Catholic clergy from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ahead of Easter due to restrictions on gatherings during the Iran war, and Israeli soldiers drawing widespread condemnation for bludgeoning a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon.

The Catholic clergy were eventually granted access to the church for an Easter ceremony, and two soldiers involved in vandalizing the statue were taken off combat duty and punished.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, also took aim last year at the Israeli government for treating Christian organizations as “adversaries.”

The recent tensions follow years of skirmishes between Orthodox Jews and Christians in the Old City of Jerusalem. An epidemic of spitting attacks, often by yeshiva students who subscribe to an extreme interpretation of the Bible’s injunction to “abhor” idol worshipers, spurred rabbinic rebuke in the past, but such incidents have persisted.