By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Christian symbols are a form of “idol worship”, was the explanation provided by an Israeli health worker to justify his repeated spitting on Christian icons in the city of Jaffa. 

Jaffa, known in Arabic as Yafa, was a prominent Palestinian city that was ethnically cleansed from its inhabitants during the Nakba in 1948 – when Israel was established on the ruins of historic Palestine. A sizeable community of Palestinian Christians and Muslims still live there.

The employee of Magen David Adom – Israel’s national emergency service – had arrived at a building in Jaffa to collect samples for the coronavirus test. But the worker got caught on camera doing something else entirely. 

עובד מדא יורק על סמלי דת נוצריים קדושים בבית משפחה נוצרית ביפו בטענה שזו ״עבודה זרה״. פוגע ברגשות של עולנו. פניתי למד׳א וביקשתי להענישו בחומרה. הנהלת מדא הודיעה לי שהוא פוטר . pic.twitter.com/dainjaK0oN

— Ahmad Tibi (@Ahmad_tibi) November 16, 2020

The Israeli Jewish worker initially followed the proper procedure, taking off his “hazmat suit and chang(ing) his mask as required,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. 

Instead of proceeding with the samples, he stopped and “spat twice at pictures of Jesus which were hanging on the wall,” of one of the building’s hallways, the Israeli paper reported.

The worker would have escaped unnoticed if it were not for one of the residents of the building who watched the act on one of the security cameras. 

After trying to deny any wrongdoing, the Magen David Adom employee justified his disrespect for Christian beliefs by saying that the Torah, the Jewish holy book, teaches that Christianity is an “idol worship”, Haaretz reported.

Magen David Adom called its employee’s action a serious incident and said the employee was summoned by management where he reportedly was later suspended. 

(The Palestine Chronicle)