Jewish extremist sentenced for arson attack on church of multiplication of the loaves
He was arrested a month after the incident in July 2015. The second suspect was acquitted and a third is awaiting trial. On the wall he wrote: "Idols will be cast out or destroyed." Previous charges of hate crimes. It is the "price to pay" for "subtracting land".
Nazareth (AsiaNews / Agencies) – The Israeli court in Nazareth has sentenced Yinon Reuveni, a 22-year-old Jewish extremist for the fire at the Catholic Church of the Loaves and Fishes in Tabga (Lake of Tiberias) in June 2015. The verdict was issued yesterday.
Reuveni was arrested the month after the incident together with Yehuda Asraf, acquitted of the charges. Moshe Orbach, the third suspect, is awaiting trial for the distribution of propaganda on the "need" to attack non-Jewish properties.
The fire caused extensive damage to the store and to other buildings in the complex. No damage was reported from floor mosaics dated to the fifth century. On the wall, a Hebrew graffiti said, "Idols will be expelled or destroyed."
The church, which attracts about 5,000 pilgrims per day, was reopened to the public last February after eight months of restoration and spending about one million dollars.
As reported by local sources, Reuveni is not new to hate crimes: he is a suspect in an arson attack in February 2015 at the Basilica of the Dormition of Jerusalem and of having planned to set fire the mosques surrounding the Jewish outpost in the West Bank Of Baladim, in the province of Binyam.
In recent years, Jewish extremists and settlers have targeted various Christian and Muslim sites according to the so-called "price tag" logic: the "price" that Christians and Muslims have to pay, according to Israeli extremists, for having "taken away their land." At one time the phenomenon was spread only in areas bordering the West Bank and Jerusalem, but today it has extended to a large part of the territory.
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