Many Christians felt offended after a video circulated on social media showing an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon knocking down a statue of Jesus, decapitating it and striking its head as it lay on the ground.

The act is offensive and painful, particularly for Christians, for whom such an image is not only disrespectful but also a desecration. Israeli officials have dismissed the incident as an isolated act. But this raises a deeper question: What kind of culture produces such a moment? What kind of religious, political or ideological formation shapes a soldier who carries out such an act and records it?

To treat this as an anomaly is to miss its significance. This must be understood within a broader environment where enmity towards the “other” is cultivated and religious supremacy is normalised. The repeated harassment of Christian clergy in Jerusalem over the years, alongside a culture of impunity in which even acts like spitting at Christians have at times been tolerated, points to a deeper........

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