Jewish extremists are attacking Christians in the Holy Land. With just a few clicks, tell your congressional representatives to condemn the violence TODAY.
JERUSALEM (LifeSiteNews) — An Israeli journalist investigating “spiraling hate crimes against Christians in Jerusalem” dressed as a Catholic priest for one day and experienced being spat on and derided by Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Journalist Yossi Eli from local Channel 13 donned a Franciscan habit for a day and, according to a Monday report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “was spat at just five minutes after setting out with a Franciscan clergyman, Father Alberto.”
“A bit later, a man mocked them in Hebrew, saying, ‘Forgive me father for I have sinned,’” the outlet reported. “Then an 8-year-old spat at them, as did a soldier when a group of troops passed by later.”
Such harassment of Christians in Jerusalem, including vandalism and even physical attacks, are not new, but according to an April statement by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, “The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new,” since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government was sworn into office last December incorporating extremist Jewish leaders as part of the majority coalition.
A report from Axios at the time called Netanyahu’s coalition “the most right-wing government” in the nation’s history, including powerful minsters who espouse “racist and Jewish supremacist” views.
READ: Israeli lawmakers table bill to imprison Christians for sharing their faith in Jesus Christ
This includes Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Jewish Power party, who during his election victory speech last November praised fellow party member Bentzi Gopstein, who refers to Christians as “blood sucking vampires” and “the Christian church” as “our deadly centuries-old enemy” while calling for the expulsion of all Christians from the country.
A member of the Knesset (parliament), Ben-Gvir is a resident of an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, which is deemed illegal under international law. He was sworn in as Minister of National Security late last year, giving him unprecedented authority over police and border paramilitary units that operate among the 2.9 million Palestinians under military occupation in the West Bank.
With such leaders in power, Pizzaballa said extremists on the ground are now evermore emboldened to harass Christian religious and clergy while committing vandalism against this community’s property as well.
“These people feel they are protected … that the cultural and political atmosphere now can justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians,” the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land said.
Jewish extremists are attacking Christians in the Holy Land. With just a few clicks, tell your congressional representatives to condemn the violence TODAY.
Though freedom of religion, worship and conscience are fully recognized in Israel’s founding 1948 Declaration of Independence, a 2016 Pew Research Center survey found that nearly half of Israeli Jews believe Arabs (including Christians) “should be expelled or transferred” from the country.
Since Netanyahu’s new government has taken power, these attacks include a radical Jew entering the Church of the Flagellation in February and pulling down a large statue of Jesus Christ and smashing it on the floor, then defacing it with a hammer.
In March, two Israeli terrorists entered the Church of Gethsemane in Jerusalem that encompasses the empty tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and attempted to vandalize icons and attack the presiding bishop and another priest during Sunday morning mass.
And even earlier, Franciscan Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land decried “a group of religious Jews who entered the New Gate” near their headquarters and attacked tourists while committing acts of vandalism, “throwing chairs, tables and glasses, and transforming the Christian quarter into a battlefield.” According to the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, the police didn’t arrive for an hour, when they finally “took the attackers away.”
Other incidents include a January desecration of a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem, “Death to Christians” graffiti being written on the walls of a monastery in the Armenian quarter, and an act of vandalism being committed against a Maronite center.
Such incidents have occurred over the years with less frequency, including Jewish radicals spitting on Christians, disrupting their prayer and likely firebombing their property, including the 2015 torching of the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes at Tabgha in Galilee.
RELATED: Christian bishops in Holy Land say ‘fringe radical groups’ are trying to drive them out of Jerusalem
And similar to the lack of investigation and prosecution when it comes to the crimes of leftist terrorists in the United States — whether they be part of the Black Lives Matter terrorist crimes of 2020 or the pro-abortion terrorist acts since May 2022 — crimes against Christians in Israel and Palestine are virtually never solved or properly adjudicated.
“We see that most incidents in our quarter have gone unpunished,” lamented Father Aghan Gogchian, chancellor of the Armenian Patriarchate. He went on to convey his disappointment that law enforcement authorities don’t prosecute the culprits of such anti-Christian hate crimes with the grave charges they deserve but rather legally accommodate them as individuals suffering from mental illness.
“The police try to paint each attack as something isolated and try to paint the attackers as mentally unstable,” Amir Dan, spokesman for the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, told The Times of Israel in March. “In doing so, the police remove themselves from all responsibility.”
Yossi Eli’s new investigation reports on many of these compounding “hate crimes” and, according to his tweet of the video (in Hebrew), they “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” (all translations from Google).
Eli asked what the reaction would be from Jews if they were being spat upon instead of Christians. “Just think what the reaction of those Jews would have been if a Christian had spat on them in Europe,” he proposed, adding that being a priest for a day “was very difficult to digest.”
In response to Eli’s impactful report, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana met with Archbishop Pizzaballa on Tuesday, condemning “recent displays of violence against Christian clergy and citizens across the country and in Jerusalem in particular,” and he pledged to preserve Israel’s “values of freedom of religion and worship for all its citizens.”
On Wednesday, Eli continued his reporting, highlighting the plight of Polish nuns in Jerusalem whose “monastery” has been repeatedly attacked by vandals who throw stones and eggs at the building, break into the property, spit at them and more.
“Three times the nuns complained about three different cases, they begged for a car to come,” Eli wrote in his tweet uploading the video report. Only this week, “after 12 days of vandalism, the police sent a van that checked [the security] cameras.”
And what is the status of the “troublemakers?” Eli asked. “Although they are seen on cameras, they have not yet been caught. That’s how interesting Christians are here in Israel.”
Jewish extremists are attacking Christians in the Holy Land. With just a few clicks, tell your congressional representatives to condemn the violence TODAY.
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