Photoshopped picture
Jewish activist detained after posting Photoshopped image of pig on Temple Mount
Temple Mount activist arrested on suspicion of offending religion through inflammatory Facebook picture depicting a pig on the compound accompanied by the words, ‘The Israeli government allows live pigs to control the closest place to the Jewish people.’
Right-wing activist Haim Brosh was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of insulting religion after posting a Photoshopped picture on Facebook that shows a pig on the Temple Mount.
The Photoshopped image of the pig was accompanied by the text "The Israeli government allows live pigs to control the closest place to the Jewish people, while everyone is outraged by a pig's head at the grave of a righteous rabbi in the anti-Semitic Europe."
Brosh was referring to the Tuesday night anti-Semitic attack at the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Ukraine, which was defiled with a pig’s head and drenched in fake blood.
Brosh's post
He was arrested at around 8pm, but claimed that police refused to tell him why he was being detained. "My wife started crying and asked them not to come into the house. It was a very unpleasant situation," Brosh said.
"They put me in an unmarked car that had people in civilian clothing. They questioned me about the post for a few hours. Every claim I presented, the interrogator told me 'This is another one of your mess ups.' They treated me very disrespectfully. I told them, 'Listen, there's nothing here except for the freedom of expression,'" he added.
"They tried to accuse me of trying to set the Middle East on fire, to cause provocation," Brosh went on to say.
He was released shortly after midnight on Thursday and barred from the holy site. Brosh claimed he was told by police to delete the post or risk being arrested again.
The 30-year-old man deleted the post but plans to appeal the order barring him from the Temple Mount.
Brosh explained the post was meant to convey that "the Israeli government allows a foreign body, the Waqf, to control the place and act aggressively and hurt basic democratic rights of Jews who simply want to go on the Temple Mount and pray without causing any provocation."
Jews are prohibited from praying on the Temple Mount, and are only permitted to visit. As such, they are not allowed to bring prayer shawls or religious books into the complex, which is managed by the Waqf as part of Israel's peace agreement with Jordan.
"I go on the Temple Mount and I'm being harassed, being sworn at and called a pig. At every mosque, Jews are being called monkeys and pigs and no one else was arrested for insulting religion," he protested.
Brosh's lawyer, Itamar Ben-Gvir, accused the police of "acting as if we were in Iran or Syria and not in a democratic country. In a country that has made the freedom of expression into its most precious value, citizens don't get arrested late at night over a post on Facebook, certainly over one that raises no legal problems."
"It's even graver that the police barred Brosh from entering the Temple Mount complex for 15 days," he added.
The Israel Police confirmed the arrest and the order barring Brosh from the Temple Mount for 15 days, stating that while the activist committed to deleting the post, he only removed it from his Facebook Timeline, while the post still appears on social media by the many shares it received.
Police officials clarified that posts online concerning the Temple Mount have an explosive potential. This has led to increased enforcement on the matter, including frequent questioning of Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem over their posts concerning the Temple Mount.
