Jewish residents of Hebron and Kiryat Arba in the West Bank will hold funeral services Tuesday, Tisha B’Av, for religious articles found vandalized in the Hebron flea market. Tisha B’Av is the annual day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples in ancient Israel.
Thousands of pages torn from prayerbooks, the Jewish Scriptures and other Jewish holy books were found by Jews last Friday, causing an uproar among Jews residing in the heavily-Arab section. Police said there was no clear evidence about the source of the books or the defamers of the holy writings.
When the discovery was made, Jews began assembling the remnants, filling six sacks before the Sabbath began. The army closed off the area in which the remnants were found, hoping the Jews would find more. No arrests were made.
The Kiryat Arba committee, representing the all-Jewish town near Hebron, met last night in an extraordinary session, protesting the desecration and asking for punishment for the perpetrators. The committee also warned against the “deterioration of the security situation in the territories.”
The remnants will be buried in the Jewish cemetery in Hebron.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
