Israel failing to stop attacks on Christians, Jerusalem churches say

Visitors to Jerusalem this Easter season may have noticed some new additions in the Old City: security cameras on the Church of Flagellation, an iron gate at the Franciscans, protective barbed wire on the Armenian Monastery’s roof.

“This is not part of the Franciscan spirituality of welcoming,” noted Brother Francesco Patton, Vatican custodian, or Custos, of the Holy Land.

But Christian churches and worshippers in Jerusalem say they are facing an unprecedented rise in attacks that are upsetting a delicate balance of harmony in a city, revered by the three Abrahamic faiths, that is home to dozens of diverse communities and denominations.

It comes as Israel faces a domestic political crisis and a general rise in Israeli-Palestinian violence, with rhetoric by far-right government ministers fanning the flames of extremist violence. 

Some fear the attacks belong to a wider campaign by Israeli extremists and settler groups to make East Jerusalem unwelcoming to Palestinian Christians and Armenians, furthering a long-term goal of claiming sacred lands.

Rallying around Jerusalem’s Christians are Israeli Jews and nongovernmental organizations determined to protect the city’s diverse makeup and freedom of worship.

Yet Christians say this support is no match for a growing culture of impunity among extremists encouraged by alleged government inaction and a lack of prosecutions.

“If there is no justice, there is no safety. If there is no safety, there is no freedom of worship,” says George, a Christian resident of the Old City. “If there is no freedom of worship, what is our future as a community?”

Vandalism and harassment

February and March saw what Church leaders describe as an “unprecedented” 10-day spate of vandalism at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and the Church of the Flagellation, the Protestant Cemetery, and the Armenian Monastery.

The Israeli police, working closely with religious leaders, have made some initial arrests in connection with these incidents.

While the vandalism grabbed headlines, community and church leaders say there has been a parallel uptick in unpublicized acts of harassment and physical attacks – deepening a sense of unease.

“We have had unfortunate incidents and tensions in the Old City in the past,” says one shopkeeper near the Armenian Quarter, “but we have never had constant harassment interrupting our daily life like this.”

“The aggression against Christian holy places and symbols is not news, but the frequency and violence is something quite new,” said Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Vatican’s top representative in the city. He was speaking to reporters in one of several interviews with church leaders in the context of the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem’s “Protecting Holy Land Christians” campaign.

Church leaders have issued increasingly stern statements and letters to Israel’s government, which their authors say are ignored.

“At this moment, we believe that our statements are useless,” said Brother Patton, the Custos.

“We issue a statement, after one week there is another episode. We issue another statement, then a third episode. Then a third statement,” he said. “At the end we look at each other as heads of the churches and ask what is it necessary for us to do? Our statements are blowing in the wind.”

Israeli officials say the government includes multiple authorities working to ensure the safety of Christians and others in Jerusalem.

“The police are reacting very quickly because there are more cameras in the Old City. Whenever they can, they arrest suspects, sometimes on the spot,” says Tania Berg-Rafaeli, director of the World Religions Department at the Foreign Ministry. Recent arrests, she says, have “led to some indictments, which is something we didn’t have before.”

“The suspects committing acts against the Christians don’t represent anyone – they are marginal,” she adds.

Yet church leaders and their Israeli supporters challenge that, detecting clear ideological organization behind some of the attacks.

Many of the vandals are believed to come from West Bank settlements and to be ignorant of, or hostile to, interfaith coexistence in the Old City. Church leaders say they work with Jerusalem rabbis to stem the violence, but the Jewish religious leaders are stymied by the fact that in nearly every instance, the far-right agitators are not even from Jerusalem.

Church heads say many of these trouble-makers are inspired by – or take orders from – far right groups with a clear goal: to incite strife and mark the Old City as their own.

What’s more, says Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilis III, suspects often “go through the main door and go out the back door” of the Israeli justice system, and few are indicted. Perpetrators are often classified as suffering mental illness, says the Custos, thus avoiding prison.

“The accountability of settlers is something that hardly seems to be happening,” says Shai Gorem of Ir Amim, or “City of Nations,” an Israeli legal advocacy nonprofit that works to make Jerusalem a “more equitable and sustainable city for the Israelis and Palestinians who share it,” as their website puts it.

Yellow-vested Jewish Israeli volunteers from the Jerusalem Intercultural Center’s Window to Mount Zion initiative monitor Christian ceremonies in a bid to prevent far-right attacks.

But many incidents are now occurring at night, when priests and worshippers are heading to Mass or residents are walking home, when there are no foreign pilgrims, and when policing is light.

“People spitting on us or cursing us and calling us idol-worshippers during the day, those are ignorant young people who don’t know better,” says one Armenian community leader, “but these organized gangs who come at night are violent, and they are out to cause serious trouble.”

In one recent late-night incident, a gang of youths brawled with patrons at an Armenian cafe. In another, a priest was shoved and threatened with death. In yet another, a gang attempted to scale the Armenian Patriarchate to tear down the church’s flag and replace it with Israel’s. When Armenian youths attempted to chase the gang down the street toward an Israeli checkpoint, they say the agitators shouted “terrorists,” prompting the police to point their guns at the Armenians instead.

“Right now, we are completely vulnerable,” says an Armenian youth who witnessed one of the attacks and asked to withhold his name due to security concerns. “If we do anything to defend ourselves, all it takes is one word from the settlers to turn the police on us. Where do we turn?”

“The Armenian Monastery is the one place where I felt safe, no matter what was going on outside,” says one young Armenian woman. “Now I am afraid for my physical safety, even within its walls.”

Israeli government “absent”

Christian church leaders and community members accuse the government of inaction in the face of the violence that they say dates back a year.   

Ms. Berg-Rafaeli, of the Foreign Ministry, expressed “surprise” at the allegations. “We react whenever we can,” she said. “Whatever they need, whenever they need it, they can ... talk to us directly.”

But church leaders say this is not enough, and that the government is abdicating its duty to keep the peace.

Church leaders say they have been frustrated by strained ties with six-time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom they have a long working history and who in 2018 declared Israel as the “one place” in the Middle East where Christians are safe.

Yet they all see Mr. Netanyahu as being at the mercy of the increasingly autonomous far-right members of his coalition, whose rhetoric refers to Christians as “guests.”

“The prime minister is in a very difficult situation. He is not the man that we knew,” said Theophilis III. “Before he was the man who was the master who can control everything, but today it is the other way around.”

With far-right ministers and members of the coalition providing rhetorical support, Patriarch Pizzaballa says, “some extremists may feel freer to express their vision and to mark the territory.”

One Armenian community leader who served as a liaison between the community and Israeli police for 40 years describes a “complete breakdown” in ties and communication between the community and the government.

“We need to rebuild a good relationship with the Israeli government,” he said. “Right now, there is no relationship.”

Church and community leaders say they rely instead on the Israeli police and army, viewed as apolitical institutions that listen to their needs and prioritize communal peace and free access to places of worship.

This cooperation was on display on Palm Sunday, when police officers joked and shook hands with church leaders and worshippers as they guided thousands from the Mount of Olives down to the Old City’s Church of Saint Anne. Some 60,000 pilgrims came to Jerusalem during Holy Week without incident.

Yet prized real estate remains a flashpoint.

The Greek Orthodox Church owns 30% of the land within the walled Old City; it is the largest landlord, renting homes, shops, hotels, and restaurants to Palestinian residents. Jerusalem’s churches own large swathes of the Mount of Olives – revered by both Christians and Jews.

That ownership may come under threat, says Ir Amim’s Mr. Gorem, as messianic Jewish settler groups launch pressure campaigns, buy up land, and seek to expand national parks.

The Jerusalem Municipality has plans to expand the Western Wall Biblical Park to cover all the Mount of Olives.

“This is a small group of settlers turning the relations of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Jerusalem into a living hell,” says Mr. Gorem. “Jerusalem has always had a delicate balance.”