June 18, 2015 — Jerusalem, Israel
AJC called the attack on the Church of the Multiplication in northern Israel a vile, criminal act and urged the apprehension of those responsible.
"An attack on a church or any place of religious worship in Israel is an outrageous attack on the democratic values at the heart of the State of Israel's ethos," said Rabbi David Rosen, AJC’s Director of International Interreligious Affairs. “Religious freedom and mutual respect are central to those Israeli values.”
Christians believe the Church of the Multiplication, located at Tabgha, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, is the site of Jesus’s miracle of multiplying two fish and five loaves to feed 5,000 people. Graffiti in Hebrew, “The false gods will be eliminated,” was scrawled on a building adjacent to the church.
