This article is fuckin great. Ben Gvir is/was Israel’s national security minister, and oversees the police:

Ben Gvir had previously defended the act of spitting on Christians as “an ancient Jewish custom”.

followed later by:

Police have reportedly not been taking the attacks seriously, refusing to treat the incidents as part of a trend and downplaying the culprits' motives by saying they are carried out due to "mental illness".

It’s not a problem because it’s an ancient tradition, but an ancient tradition carried out only by those with “mental illness”.

Hmm.