Christians under fire in the holy land |
For decades, Israel has projected itself to the West as a guardian of democracy and religious freedom in the Middle East. Yet the lived reality of many Palestinian and Lebanese Christians tells a different story — one marked by intimidation, displacement, attacks on churches and convents, and rising sectarian hatred from extremist settlers and ultranationalist groups. The suffering of Christians in the occupied Palestinian territories is too often erased from mainstream discourse. Palestinian Christians are routinely spoken of as though they barely exist, despite being among the oldest Christian communities on earth. There is a specifically anti-Christian dimension to the violence that deserves urgent international attention. In Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, attacks against clergy, pilgrims, churches, cemeteries and Christian communities have sharply increased in recent years. Reports document incidents ranging from spitting at priests and nuns to vandalism, arson and physical assault. The Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh — the last entirely Christian Palestinian town in the West Bank — has become a symbol of this mounting persecution. Residents and clergy have repeatedly accused extremist Israeli settlers of torching cars, setting fires near ancient churches, destroying olive groves and terrorizing villagers while Israeli soldiers either stood by or arrived too late to intervene. Church leaders in Taybeh have warned that the objective appears to be the gradual expulsion of Palestinians from their ancestral land, Christians included. This is not merely random hooliganism. It is the poisonous outcome of years of ultranationalist rhetoric that dehumanizes Palestinians and treats non-Jewish communities as obstacles to a maximalist ideological project. Some extremist settler groups openly invoke religious supremacy while carrying out acts of intimidation against Palestinian Muslims and Christians alike. The violence has extended beyond Palestine into Lebanon as well. During Israel’s military operations in southern Lebanon, Christian sites have not been spared. Recent reports described the destruction of parts of a........