Israeli settler to go on trial over attack on French nun in Jerusalem | Israel

An Israeli settler suspected of kicking and wounding a French Catholic nun in Jerusalem will be tried for assault due to hostility towards a religious group, Israel’s justice ministry said.

The attack on the 48-year-old nun, a researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, took place on Mount Zion, just outside the Old City.

The suspect, 36-year-old Yona Simcha Schreiber, comes from the settlement of Peduel in the occupied West Bank.

In the statement made by the Ministry, it was stated that the person has been detained since April 29 and that the prosecutor’s office requested that he be detained until the hearing. Schreiber faces a charge of assault resulting in injuries motivated by hostility towards a religious group.

In the footage captured on the crime scene security cameras, it is seen that a man in a white outfit and black veil ran towards the nun, pushing her violently to the ground, and the nun almost came to the point of hitting her head on a stone block. The man leaves the scene to return and kick the nun before a passerby intervenes.

The French Consulate in Jerusalem condemned the attack and demanded that the person be tried.

A statement issued by the Faculty of Humanities of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at the time of the incident expressed “deep shock and condemnation” and deplored the “disturbing manner” and nature of the attack.

The faculty said: “This is not an isolated incident but part of a disturbing pattern of increasing hostility towards the Christian community and its symbols.”

Israel’s foreign ministry also condemned this “shameful act” in a statement about X, saying Israel remained committed to “protecting freedom of religion and freedom of worship for all faiths.”