Israel is targeting Palestinian Christians

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Israel is targeting Palestinian Christians 
https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2023/6/29/Israel-is-targeting-Palestinian-Christians

Israel continues its policy of Judaizing the occupied city of Jerusalem where it targets Islamic and Christian holy sites. It is trying to change the historical mark of Jerusalem as a multicultural city that is sacred to all three religions and to turn it into a city with an exclusive Jewish identity.

Over the years, Israel has invested billions of shekels in archaeological tourism projects aiming to entrench the Jewish narrative to change the way the city is perceived. In recent weeks, it has announced an additional investment of tens of millions of shekels in archaeological excavations and projects run by the far-right Elad Association (City of David), claiming that these projects tell the story of Jewish Jerusalem. It also allocated a large part of the budget to bringing soldiers and students to participate in excavations and cultural events at these sites.

The Judaization of Jerusalem has become part of the daily life of Israelis, and so have attacks against everything that is not Jewish. Recent months have witnessed several incidents of vandalism against churches and their cemeteries, as well as attacks on Christian processions through the streets. Actions that were previously limited to an extremist minority are almost becoming an Israeli routine.

Judaization of the Holy City began as a settlement initiative in the Palestinian neighborhoods, and it went on through placing one of the most important archaeological sites in the world in the hands of a political association whose declared goal is to Judaize the region. It has now reached the point where everyone in the area who is not Jewish has become the subject of aggression by the Israeli public, with the aim of uprooting them.

Judaization efforts reveal that settlement groups continue to invent means and falsify facts to prove their historical claims to a Judaized Jerusalem. The latest of these attempts was targeting the Christian presence in the holy city through attacking Christian marches there, demolishing their historical monuments and attacking clergymen, including monks and priests. This comes in addition to the violations carried out against Muslims, in clear efforts to banish anything that is not Jewish in occupied Jerusalem. Leaders of the Christian Church recently reported an increase in the number of Israeli attacks against them, including personal attacks on Christian symbols and vandalism of churches; an increase that has been witnessed since the current right-wing government took office.

The fake image of coexistence forged by Israeli officials is clearly contrary to the experiences described by Christian leaders in occupied Jerusalem, who talk about a difficult environment that includes harassment and indifference on the part of the occupation authorities, and a growing fear that incidents of spitting and vandalism will turn into something darker, which creates a feeling that Christians' sense of security is deteriorating.

Christian clergymen and property in the Old City have suffered repeated acts of vandalism and harassment in the past, but in recent weeks there has been a significant increase in attacks against them. These attacks included the destruction of tombstones in the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion and the vandalism of the Maronite community center. In addition, the buildings of the Armenian community in Jerusalem have become a target for Israeli violations and their walls have been covered with hateful graffiti which reads "Death to Christians, Arabs and Armenians". In addition, a settler attacked priests with an iron rod in Mary's Church.

The Greek Orthodox Church announced that terrorist attacks launched by extremist Israeli groups against churches, cemeteries and Christian properties have become an almost daily occurrence which intensify during Christian holidays.

Meanwhile, Father Matthew, secretary of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, confirmed that two religious Jews assaulted a priest with disability while he was slowly leaving the Greek Orthodox monastery and attacked another priest with pepper spray.

As a result of such events, the Franciscans have been locking the doors of the San Salvador complex at night, a step they have never taken before. Christians are worried that extremist Israelis may come in at any time and attack the building.

Jewish extremists feel that no one will stop them, because of the support they enjoy from the police and political leaders. While the heads of the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches have previously accused the Jerusalem municipality of leading a systematic campaign against the churches and the Christian community in the Holy Land.

The Knesset intends to discuss, and possibly vote on, a bill that would allow the state to confiscate land sold by the church to private investors. This is in addition to the 2018 decision by the Jerusalem Municipality to freeze church funds until they pay property taxes to the tune of millions of shekels.

The number of Christians in Israel increased by 1.4 per cent in 2020 and there are currently 182,000 Christians living in Israel. The global Christian community is at odds with Israel's official policy against Christians. Ambassadors of the Vatican, Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Belgium, and the United States receive regular news updates about the attacks against Christians of the Occupied Territories; they predict a worsening situation where acts of vandalism may reach the point of killing.


- Dr. Adnan Abu Amer heads the Political Science and Media Department of Umma University Open Education in Gaza. His article appeared in MEMO.       

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Palestinian Youth Confront Israeli Extremists Attack at Catholic Church for Second Time in Week 
Amid growing attacks by Israeli extremists targeting Christian sites in Palestine, local communities fight back.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/palestinian-youth-confront-israeli-extremists-attack-at-catholic-church-for-second-time-in-week/

For the second time in a week, a group of Israeli extremists attempted to raid the Roman Catholic Church and Monastery of Mar Elias in the city of Haifa, according to eyewitness, the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA reported on Sunday.

Witnesses said that around 50 Israeli Jewish settlers who arrived in the vicinity of the church by minibuses tried to break into the church, but they were confronted by Palestinian youths.

This was the second time within a week that Israeli settlers attempted to raid the church, and each time the Palestinian community attempted to push back against the attackers.

In March this year, two Israeli settlers broke into the Church of Gethsemane in occupied Jerusalem and tried to sabotage the content inside the church but were confronted and foiled by a Palestinian man who was present at the church.

In December 2020, an Israeli settler also attempted to burn down the Gethsemane Church in the Mount of Olives area in occupied East Jerusalem.

In 2015, Israeli Jewish extremists were blamed for an arson attack that caused extensive damage to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish, a popular pilgrimage site on the Sea of Galilee in the north of Israeli-occupied historical Palestine.

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Israeli extremists attempt to storm Catholic church and monastery   
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254952/israeli-extremists-attempt-to-storm-catholic-church-in-northern-israel

Extremist Israeli groups have on several occasions in recent weeks attempted to storm the Stella Maris Monastery and Catholic church in the northern port city of Haifa, Israel, prompting Christians to take measures to protect the holy site.

After several attempts last week, intruders managed to infiltrate the outer courtyard of the monastery and disrupt the prayer session taking place, causing fear and anger among the Christian community.

In an effort by the church to deter any future attacks, work began today to install an iron fence around the monastery. The monastery was founded by the Carmelites, who have been practicing their faith from Mt. Carmel in Haifa since the 12th century, when hermits began to gather in a caves in imitation of the prophet Elijah. Tradition says that the prophet's cave is located underneath the altar of the church.

Wadih Abu Nassar, an adviser to several churches in the Holy Land, commented on the installation of the fence in a post on his Facebook page, saying: "The gates will contribute to facilitating filing a complaint against those who jump over the gates and walls of the monastery as an aggressor. It will also facilitate protecting the monastery from attacks."

After a series of attempts to infiltrate the church, intruders were confronted by Haifa's Christians last Thursday evening in the courtyard of the monastery and St. Elias Church.

The repeated attacks in Deir Mar Elias are linked to a group of extremist Israelis' allegations that the Christian site contains the "tomb of the Prophet Elisha." The church has responded to the allegations with a categorical denial, stressing that the monastery's tomb contains only priests and monks.

The Justice and Peace Committee of the Council of Heads of Catholic Churches in the Holy Land condemned these attacks on Christian clergy and Christian holy places.

In a statement, the committee drew attention to the number of attacks in recent months against Christian clerics with beatings and insults in addition to the vandalism of sacred sites and offensive writings by extremist settlers.

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who was just named a cardinal by Pope Francis and serves as the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, has raised concerns that Christians are increasingly enduring persecution in the Holy Land. He said the current administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has created a political climate in which acts of aggression are tolerated.

"The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new," Pizzaballa said during Easter week, LaCroix International reported. "These people feel they are protected ... that the cultural and political atmosphere now can justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians."

The Islamic-Christian Committee for Jerusalem and its Holy Sites also condemned these provocations and stressed its intolerance toward repeated harassment and attacks on Christian sacred sites in the region, describing such actions as "barbaric."

In a statement, the committee expressed deep concern over the ongoing assaults on the monastery under the pretext of conducting prayers for the Jewish prophet who they say is buried there.

The committee affirmed that claims of the existence of Jewish graves within churches are used as pretexts to seize sacred sites. It likened these actions to similar acts of aggression witnessed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque when Israeli troops raided the Muslim sacred site.