Haredi Man Accused of defacing Yad Vashem 'I wish I could blow up the Knesset'

Elhanan Esterovitch 

"I wish I could blow up the Knesset, the Supreme Court and several IDF bases," Elhanan Esterovitch, the prime suspect in the vandalism of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum told investigators in his interrogations.

Esterovitch, 31, a haredi resident of Jerusalem, was arraigned on Tuesday. He is accused of trespassing, vandalism, damaging public property and offenses against the flag.

The police asked the court to remand him pending the conclusion of the legal proceedings against him. Three other suspects in the case were remanded to house arrest. 

The case made by the police alleges that on June 11 Esterovitch defaced Yad Vashem's main entrance, spraying graffiti reading "Hitler, thanks for the Holocaust," "If Hitler didn’t exist the Zionists would have had to invent him," "Israel is the secular Auschwitz of the Sephardic Jewry" and "Jews wake up – the Zionist regime is dangerous."

Graffiti to that effect were also found on the floor of the museum's main memorial hall and on some of the bronze reliefs on the walls.

The police believe Esterovitch was spooked by the sound of a car driving up to the entrance, and fled the scene.

The police believe he is also linked to the vandalism of the Ammunition Hill memorial site in April.

Defense Attorney Yair Nehorai said that "I don’t believe that offending the public, grave as it may be, is grounds for procedural remand."