Israeli police arrest suspects for spitting near Christian pilgrims and churches in Jerusalem

By JULIA FRANKEL
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police say they have arrested several people suspected of spitting in the direction of Christian pilgrims and churches in Jerusalem. The incident comes as religious tensions have flared in the contested capital that the three Abrahamic faiths consider holy. The police said they arrested four people accused of spitting toward churches on Wednesday. Footage captured earlier in the week that shows ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting at the feet of foreign Christian worshipers in the Old City of Jerusalem had triggered outrage and stirred concerns of rising intolerance among religious Jews. The government on Tuesday offered a rare condemnation of the incident.