Jews keep attacking Christians in Israel

Lazar Berman, March 30, 2023 (Times of Israel); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Toppled statue in Church of the Flagellation, Jerusalem 2/2/23 (Custody of the Holy Land)

As Jews attack Christians and this becomes more frequent, a crisis looms for Israel.

Journalist Lazar Berman

Christian church leaders point to an inhospitable political atmosphere as they lock compounds at night; government ministries insist they are actively combating ill-treatment.

• Under Israeli Dictator Netanyahu, violence against Christians by Jews is being normalized (msn.com)
• On Easter, some Christians become targets for persecution
• IMAGES: The vandalized sanctuary of the Beit Jamal Monastery seen on September 22, 2017 (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem).
• Catholic leaders, including Custos Francesco Patton (left), stand around a vandalized statue of Jesus, March 24, 2023 (Filippo De Grazia).
• Hosam Naoum, a Palestinian Anglican bishop, pauses where vandals desecrated more than 30 graves at a historic Christian Protestant cemetery on Jerusalem's Mount Zion in Jerusalem, January 4, 2023 (AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean).
  
• Illustrative -- In this Oct. 9, 2016 photo, Armenian priests arrive for Sunday mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during its renovation in Jerusalem's Old City (AP Photo/Oded Balilty).
• The word "revenge" is graffitied in Hebrew on a wall in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, January 11, 2022 (Armenian Patriarchate).

“If you are a Christian in the Middle East, there’s only one place where you are safe,” claims [Dictator] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to Christian Zionists in Rio de Janeiro [way back] in Dec. 2018. [The story has changed, and he's not mentioning the change to Christians.]

“There’s only one place where the Christian community is growing, thriving, prospering. That’s in the State of Israel.”

Netanyahu’s claim is a central element of the image Israeli officials put forward about the country when speaking to Western audiences. Ahead of Christmas 2022, Israel’s official Twitter account posted a video of the Foreign Ministry’s Digital Diplomacy Chief David Saranga on a “magical Christmas stroll” through Jerusalem’s Old City.

State of Jerusalem: The "Secular" Struggle
The picture of safe coexistence painted by Israeli officials is starkly at odds with the experiences Jerusalem’s Christian leaders themselves describe.

While they readily acknowledge that there is no organized or governmental effort against them, Christian clergy in the Old City tell of a deteriorating atmosphere of harassment, apathy from authorities, and a growing fear that incidents of spitting and vandalism could turn into something far darker.

And with Netanyahu already under scrutiny from Western allies over [draconian] policies toward the Palestinians and attempts at sweeping judicial [changes labeled] reform, deteriorating safety for Christians — or at least Church leaders disseminating that narrative — could become another serious diplomatic problem for Israel’s embattled government. More + GRAPHIC IMAGES

• Truth about Israel and Netanyahu?
  
• BIPOC Doing Racism: Rapist brags (Twitter)
• Pacifica Archives (KPFK 90.7 FM)

Is there a Jewish voice for peace?

(Jewish Voice for Peace) Free Palestine from Israeli oppression!