Anti-Christian hatred and attacks are becoming more and more common in Israel, as some are calling the levels of violence a “crisis” for the conservative government led by Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop and soon-to-be Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, has spoken out regarding the growing anti-Christian attacks in Israel in a recent interview with Vatican News.
“Let us say that these clashes, these spats, these accusations, these insults, are not new. But the exponential increase in these phenomena, especially in the Jerusalem area, in the Old City, has become a matter of concern and an issue on the agenda that worries both the Christian community and the Israeli authorities,” Archbishop Pizzaballa said.
He noted that while authorities in Israel have publicly condemned the rise in anti-Christian attacks, their promises to act have yet to yield much in the way of real results.
“On the one hand, the problem is that these phenomena are increasing, perhaps also supported, as I said, by a certain religious cultural context; On the other hand, however, there is also a Christian community that feels the object of indiscriminate attacks based on religious violence, religious hatred, religious contempt. This in turn creates, even within the Christian community, tension, discontent, and sometimes, often even anger,” he said.
While Archbishop Pizzaballa did state that the political tensions in Israel likely play a role in the rise of attacks, he did not directly blame the government and stated that so far the violence has not risen to the level of persecution of Christians.
“When we talk about persecution, I think of what radical Islamists have done in Syria and Iraq. We are not in that situation. There are problems, for sure, but we are not persecuted,” he said.
Over the last year, there have been several anti-Christian incidents that have made headlines in Israel. In February, a U.S. Jewish tourist vandalised a statue of Jesus in the Church of Flagellation in the Old City, the site where Christ was scourged before his crucifixion.
The following month in March, members of the Greek Orthodox church were attacked at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary by two Jewish men armed with iron bars. The pair allegedly tried to attack Archbishop Joachim and attacked a priest, with the Greek church labelling the incident a “heinous terrorist attack.”
“Terrorist attacks, by radical Israeli groups, targeting churches, cemeteries, and Christian properties … have become almost a daily occurrence that evidently increases in intensity during Christian holidays,” the church said and called for “international protection of holy sites.”
Spitting attacks from Jews toward Christians and other non-Jews have also become more and more common, to the extent that an entire conference was held regarding the issue in Israel in June entitled “Why Do (Some) Jews Spit on Gentiles.”
The conference received intense backlash from Israeli authorities. Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon’s aides allegedly demanded the conference not be held at the Tower of David Museum and threatened to fire the museum’s director Eilat Lieber.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also boycotted the conference after being invited by the organisers. They have been largely silent on the anti-Christian attacks and have not denounced them.
According to Yaska Harani, one of the conference organisers, the purpose of the conference was not to offend the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel but to simply stop the spitting attacks.
“If education doesn’t succeed, then there must be enforcement. As long as the scope of these incidents is not recognized, there will be no legislation or efforts to oppose it. This will cost us heavily in the media but it will also historically,” Harani stated.
In one incident in June, an Israeli journalist named Yossi Eli went undercover and dressed up as a priest for a day and found that he was not only harassed, spat at, and called various slurs, he was even physically assaulted.
He stated on Twitter:
The justification of some Jewish groups for hate crimes is that they are “mentally ill.” So no. Our investigation proved that the attacks are really not from the mentally ill, but people with a clear opinion who simply hate something they are not. Brainwash them that Jesus is bad. Young extremists, children, and most sadly soldiers, the “salt of the earth” express their hatred towards Christianity. Just think what the reaction of those Jews would have been if a Christian had spat on them in Europe. The full investigation, the truth? “Priest for a Day” was very difficult to digest.
Members of the conservative Israeli government have expressed concern with the continued anti-Christian attacks, with the Interior Ministry’s Religious Communities Department being in close contact with various Christian leaders and groups.
“The Interior Ministry, through the Religious Communities Department, works continuously through a guiding ethic of providing freedom of religion and worship, and protecting the Status Quo and Holy Places, and is present at all times to help and assist as much as possible, and hopes that violent incidents will end immediately,” and Interior Ministry spokesperson said.
