In a powerful statement , Christian leaders in the Holy Land have heavily criticised increasing violence against their people in the region.
The hard hitting message criticised ‘frequent and sustained attacks by fringe radical groups’. This included attacks at Easter at the Mount of Olives and elsewhere. They then mentioned Holy Sites being ‘regularly vandalised and desecrated’. This, they said, was part of a ‘systematic attempt to drive the Christian community out of Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy Land’.
The statement also pointed out that the Israeli government had failed to stop those who ‘regularly initimidate local Christians, assault priests and clergy, and desecrate Holy Sites and church properties’.
Worryingly, they stated that although the Jewish Quarter had special protection under law, there was no such protections for the Christian areas of the city. They pointed out that these ‘radical groups’ were not acquiring ‘strategic property in the Christian Quarter, with the aim of diminishing the Christian presence, often using underhanded dealings and intimidation tactics to evict residents from their homes, dramatically decreasing the Christian presence and further disrupting the historic pilgrim routes between Bethlehem and Jerusalem’.
They made a call for dialogue with an aim to establishing two things:
To deal with radical ultra Jewish violence against Christians
To ensure the maintenance and safety of the presence of the Christian Quarter and its heritage
The Spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs called the claims ‘baseless’.
Lior Haiat stated that the Christian community in Israel is growing, which is true overall, but in East Jerusalem they are not, this is what the church leaders were trying to address. He then called the message ‘infuriating’ and warned that it ‘could lead to violence and bring harm to innocent people’.
Many of the attacks that the Christian leaders were referring to have been led by Bentzi Gopshtain and his organisation Lehava. Lehava are opposed to allowing anyone other than Israeli Jews to be allowed to assimilated within Jerusalem and surround regions. In 2015, the church filed an official complaint against Lehava after he appeared to call for Catholic churches to be burnt to the ground, stating:
The law is straightforward: Maimonides’ interpretation is that one must burn idolatry. There’s not a single rabbi that would deliberate that fact. I expect the government of Israel to carry that out
In 2015, they organised a violent protest against a Christian event at an Armenian Church in the city.
Israeli settlers have also regularly been caught on CCTV spitting on the Armenian Church in Jerusalem.
The Armenian Christian community have repeatedly been victims of these targets, once having to report of constant spitting being sent in their direction.
Last Christmas, it was the church at Gethsemene which faced an arson attack from these extremists.
One Jewish media outlet, JWire responded to the calls by Christian leaders by stating that it was an:
anti-Israel political ploy that should be rejected by Israel.
They also published this cartoon that criticised the Christian leaders and referred to them as ‘weasles’.
