During a routine inspection of a mezuzah at Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, hospital personnel discovered that sacred parchment had been stolen and replaced with an antisemitic note.
“All Jews are liars and have no religion; they are murderers and terrorists. Death to the Jews,” the paper read in Hebrew. Written on the opposite side, in Arabic, was, “There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Islam is the solution.”
“As soon as [the issue] became known, a complaint was filed with the Israel Police, and the medical center’s director ordered a work plan to check all the mezuzot in the hospital,” the Galilee Medical Center responded in a statement on Tuesday. “So far, after examining over 400 mezuzot, no similar cases were discovered.”
Since there were no security cameras in the room, located in the oncology ward, the perpetrators are unlikely to be caught, added the hospital.
Nahariya Chief Rabbi Yeshayahu Meitlis said the incident “damages the delicate fabric between all religions” in northern Israel. “It’s unacceptable that something like this happens in the Jewish state. We live here with mutual respect for all faiths,” he said.
A mezuzah is a case that consists of a scroll with verses from the Torah, including the “Shema,” which states, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is one,” and mentions the biblical commandment to have a mezuzah on the doorposts of entrances to one’s home or gate.