Attacks on Christians in the Holy Land

From the ChristianZionism.org Editorial Team

August 17 2023

The year 2023 has seen increasing violence in the Holy Land. According to the Associated Press, by July 3rd more than 135 Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli military in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This nearly matches the death toll for all of 2022. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have resulted in 24 deaths (https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-violence-raid-army-2cd32276d1c3c85f21a0462420227382).

Some of the Palestinians who died were Christians, although they were not targeted because of their Christian faith. They died because they were Palestinians, casualties of Israeli military incursions. While it is important to acknowledge that in the West Bank some tensions exist between Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims, these tensions rarely result in violence.

But there is now concrete and disturbing evidence that Christians are indeed being targeted for harassment inside Israel, especially in Jerusalem. This should be a grave concern to Christians in other parts of the world. While it’s true that Jesus taught us to care about all people and made no distinction between Jew and Gentile in the healing miracles he performed, it’s also true that from its beginning the church was told to take specific responsibility for the wellbeing of Christians both near and far. Paul made it clear that “If one member of the body suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor 12:26). Paul asked many times that particular consideration be given to the suffering Christian community in Jerusalem (1 Cor 16:1–4; 2 Cor 8:1–9:15; Rom 15:14–32). It is both natural and necessary that religious communities do their best to take care of their own, and as Christians, we must defend our brothers and sisters in Christ. Christian leaders in the Holy Land are asking for our help: Heads of Churches in Jerusalem Call For An End to Attacks on Holy Sites

The following are news reports from Israeli and other mainstream news sources documenting this new wave of harassment of Christians. Christians have been targeted in modern Israel for many years, but until recently such hostile acts have not, in large part, been reported in the Western media. This is partly due to the Christian inclination to endure persecution without complaint. The Israeli authorities have also insisted that these are isolated and unconnected acts. But now it is clear there is widespread abuse of the Christian minority in Israel, usually at the hands of ultra-orthodox Israeli Jews. It has also been documented that the police and military are not only turning a blind eye to these attacks but are sometimes participating. Church officials and Palestinian Christians have begun raising their voices and are being joined by sympathetic Jews, Muslims, and international observers. Here’s a collection of reports on violence, specifically directed toward the Christian community, from a variety of well-established and reputable news sources.

A Televised Report from a Church Related News Source

This first report, from July 29, 2023, contains a graphic video. It illustrates the abuse Christians experience on any given day in the streets of Jerusalem, often within sight of local police and military and on one occasion with their participation. This report is from ZENIT, a Roman Catholic news service, but the undercover journalist who exposed these acts of hostility is himself Israeli. The video reveals abuses against Protestants as well as Catholics. Israeli Journalist Dresses as a Franciscan and Makes Visible Jews’ Discrimination Against Catholics - ZENIT - English

From Israeli Newspapers

The Israeli authorities have recently placed limits on access to Christian holy sites. At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher this past Easter, worshipers were confronted by the police. This report, from April 15, 2023, also contains video footage, which in this instance shows confrontations between Israeli police and Christian worshipers, including a Coptic priest. The source is the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-04-15/ty-article/israeli-police-violently-detain-several-holy-fire-worshipers/00000187-8563-dc6c-a5ff-ef7373080000

A second report from Haaretz (March 26th, 2023): Anti-Christian Hate Crimes in Jerusalem Soaring This Year - Israel News - Haaretz.com (archive.fo)

The Times of Israel, also an Israeli newspaper, documents increasing attacks on Christians in the following articles:

March 30, 2023 - https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-attacks-on-christians-become-more-frequent-a-crisis-looms-for-israel/

January 16, 2023 - https://www.timesofisrael.com/two-teens-to-face-charges-for-vandalizing-christian-cemetery-in-jerusalem/

November 28, 2022 - Givati soldiers accused of spitting at Armenian archbishop in Jerusalem procession | The Times of Israel

From the Associated Press

This April 13, 2023 report quotes both Catholic and Protestant church leaders in the Holy Land who are alarmed at the increasing amount of violence directed at Christians. https://apnews.com/article/christians-easter-attacks-netanyahu-jerusalem-e287dd6bad32573d1656eaea07223782

From NBC News

April 20, 2023 - Christians in the Holy Land say they’re under attack as Israeli-Palestinian violence soars (nbcnews.com)

From The Christian Science Monitor

April 14, 2023 - Israel Failing to Stop Attacks on Christians, Jerusalem Churches Say

From the Security Council of the United Nations:

The UN Security Council, of which the United States is a permanent member, issued a statement on February 20th of this year noting their deep concern over rising discrimination, intolerance and hate speech motivated not only by racism but also against persons simply because they belong to a particular religious community in Israel or Palestine. The Security Council included cases motivated by prejudice against Jews and Muslims, but this time included references to attacks against Christians. They used the term “Christianophobia,” which means the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against Christians or the Christian religion and/or its practices. https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/un-security-council-calls-for-de-escalation-of-israeli-palestinian-tensions/ar-AA17ITic?getstaticpage=true&automatedTracking=staticview&infiniteIframe=2

From Palestinian Christian Writer Jonathan Kuttab

And finally, an important reflection on the current situation from a Palestinian Christian with a unique perspective. Jonathan Kuttab is an Evangelical Christian as well as an international attorney.  He was a lead negotiator in peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis in the 1990s. He is currently on the Board of Bethlehem Bible College and serves as Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), which originally published the following essay on its website. Here he offers his thoughts on the recent wave of attacks on Christians in his part of the world: 

Attacks on Christianity in Palestine

by Jonathan Kuttab

Attacks by religious fanatics on places of worship and individuals of another religion are a well-known and despicable phenomenon. They go beyond mere racism and discrimination, in that they invoke the name of God Almighty in justifying bitter hatreds and hostilities against entire communities. Those performing the attacks do so with zeal and venom, and a feeling that they are serving God. 

Attacks by religious Jews on Muslim holy places in Palestine are often recorded and noted, and they are sometimes used to explain the ongoing hostilities between Arabs and Jews and to warn of the consequences of turning an otherwise political situation into a religious conflict with devastating worldwide consequences. Indeed, it would be horribly tragic if Muslims worldwide start viewing Jews as enemies and start seeking revenge upon them in the name of God. Advocates and proponents of justice for Palestine should always be very careful to avoid such approaches and to insist on framing the situation in its proper political framework. They must not yield to the temptation of seeing it as a religious conflict between Judaism and Islam. To be sure, there are religious differences and conflicting claims to holy places, particularly in Jerusalem, and these conflicts have been used in the past to justify campaigns to conquer Jerusalem, “rid it of infidels,” and assert political control over it. This was also done by crusaders and other groups.

Recently, we have been observing a sharp rise in attacks by Jewish religious fanatics on Christian clergy, cemeteries, and holy places in Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem. These fanatics take advantage of the power of the state (Israel) to attack Christians and to assert political power and control over Jerusalem on behalf of the Jewish state.

The typical reaction in the West has been to totally ignore or downplay such attacks on Christians. One reason is an obvious one: Christians in the West feel they have very little basis for complaining against such hate crimes and bigotry in light of their own despicable millennia of anti-Jewish bigotry and intolerance in their own countries, which has not yet fully subsided. Antisemitism continues to raise its ugly head from time to time until this day. Repentance for such acts is very much called for, but that does not justify hate crimes against Palestinian Christians. The fact that the Christians being attacked in Palestine today are not responsible for western bigotry is treated as if it is beside the point. Western Christians who correctly report and condemn every attack on synagogues and Jewish cemeteries are not as willing to note or condemn attacks on Christians in Palestine.

Yet these attacks are now becoming a more frequent phenomenon. One frequent type of attack, spitting on Christian clerics and clergy, is literally a daily event in the Old City of Jerusalem. One Israeli Jewish reporter, who wanted to investigate these claims, borrowed an abbot’s cassock and walked the streets of the Old City for a day, and sure enough he was spat upon. The Israeli police apparently do nothing, even though the Old City is blanketed with surveillance cameras which record everything that happens in its streets, and given Israel's facial-recognition technology, which it is marketing to the whole world, it would be easy for them to identify the attackers and bring them to justice.

Another manifestation is in the attacks on Christian cemeteries and churches. Hateful graffiti is sprayed on the walls, there are attempts to start fires and burn churches, and cemeteries are broken into and headstones are smashed. In one recent attack on the Catholic Church of the Flagellation in the Old City of Jerusalem, statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary were shattered. This followed other attempts to set fire to churches. In a frightening incident recently, Jewish fanatics attacked the monastery of Stella Maris in Haifa, claiming that it is actually a Jewish holy site to which they want to lay claim. The conflicting claims of the three monotheistic religions, as well as the competing Christian denominations, was carefully resolved and codified in a document referred to as the Status Quo arrangement, enacted by the Turkish Ottomans, adopted by the British, then the Jordanians, and at least formally accepted by Israel. Attempts to alter this arrangement could easily lead to religious conflict.

From a theological point of view, Christians (for the most part at least), thankfully no longer make the kind of claims that were made by Crusaders. After all, the essence of Jesus’ message was to reject the concept of an earthly kingdom. “My kingdom is not of this world”, he taught. He also addressed the issue of holy places in his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. When she asked him where is the proper place to worship God, “here in Samaria or in Jerusalem?” He answered that neither is the true holy place for worship, because “God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” For Christians, therefore, it is unbiblical to seek political dominion over “holy places” in the name of religion. 

Good theological arguments can be found also in Judaism and Islam to battle such bigotry, but the fact remains that there are those who make a practice of agitating and seeking religious domination and supremacy in the name of God. We need to use both religious arguments, rational secular arguments, and proper common sense and decency to reject such atrocious behavior and to promote religious tolerance and understanding. Political strife is bad enough. Religious bigotry on top of that would be disastrous.