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"Unfortunately, we witness the continued disgraceful acts of
hatred towards Christians in the Old City of Jerusalem,
primarily through spitting by extremists," said Jerusalem
District Commander Doron Turgeman.
No details were provided on the identities of the people who
were arrested.
Members of the area's small Christian community have said they
have faced growing harassment and intimidation from Jewish
ultranationalists, particularly since Netanyahu's hard-right
government took office late last year.
Wednesday's arrests came as the city prepared for its annual
Jerusalem March, an event that usually draws huge crowds,
including thousands of Christian pilgrims.
Israeli media published video footage in the Old City this week
showing Orthodox Jews, including small children, apparently
spitting on the ground as they passed a group of foreign
Christian pilgrims.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the incident,
promising to take "immediate and decisive action".
"Israel is totally committed to safeguard the sacred right of
worship and pilgrimage to the holy sites of all faiths," he said
in a message on the social messaging platform X.
The Old City's patchwork of narrow alleys surround some of the
holiest sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims, and the local
communities have long developed ways of living together despite
regular spikes in tension, especially around religious and
national holidays.
Turgeman said police would use security cameras, patrols and
internet monitoring to fight the phenomenon both in real time
and in hindsight, as well as to possibly start imposing special
"administrative fines".
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and James Mackenzie; Editing by
Bernadette Baum)
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