(JTA) A Syrian asylum-seeker who in 2017 broke into a kosher restaurant in the Dutch capital was again arrested for smashing its windows while holding a lighter.
Officers on Friday morning used pepper spray to subdue the 31-year-old man, Saleh Ali, outside HaCarmel restaurant, the Het Parool daily reported. He had used a metal pipe to smash the restaurant’s windows and was holding a lighter in the other hand.
He refused to let go of the objects, when police subdued him, police said in a statement. It called Ali’s actions “vandalism.”
According to Hidde van Koningsveld, policy officer at the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, which monitors anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands, the attack was the fifth case of vandalism or intimidation in 2 1/2 years.
