The Jewish community in Hevron is demanding that action be taken following recent Arab vandalism and theft at the Cave of the Patriarchs compound.

On Friday night, Arabs stole the mezuzah from the front door of the Cave of the Patriarchs, and also broke into a nearby storage room and stole thousands of shekels worth of seedlings.

The mezuzah that was stolen was donated by the son of Baruch Cohen, who was murdered in a terrorist shooting attack in 2001.

The theft occurred during a ten-day time period when the Muslims have full control of the Cave of the Patriarchs, Jewish community spokesman Yishai Fleisher told Arutz Sheva, describing the theft and vandalism as “an act of terrorism”.

“We vow to beautify the Cave of the Patriarchs and replace the stolen mezuzah with a much more beautiful mezuzah and more Jewish presence,” he said.

The vandalism, noted Fleisher, occurred at the same time as Jewish paramedics were assisting an unconscious Palestinian Arab girl who arrived at the community.

“That’s our interest – to make sure that human beings around here are treated fairly and equally. We were ‘repaid’ with this jihadist incident of taking away our mezuzah – our connection to this place,” said Fleisher.

“We won’t allow these kinds of things to happen. We’re going to demand that these ten-day full control of the Waqf cease until the return of the mezuzah,” he stressed.