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What is happening to Holy Land Christians Now?

Christians, Jews and Muslims have coexisted for millennia in the Holy Land, though the establishment of a state prioritizing one religious group over all others in this region of many faiths has led to enormous tensions (see the historical context for this conflict).

In recent years, as the government of Israel has become more extremist, an atmosphere of Jewish supremacy has greatly intensified and a series of attacks have increased fear in Christian communities. A law passed in 2018 said that only Jews have the right to national self-determination in Israel, further marginalizing Israeli Christians. The law downgraded the Arabic language spoken by the majority of Christians and made “Jewish settlement” a national value. On July 26 of 2023, the Israeli Knesset passed a law that expanded the use of “admissions committees” which could screen out non-Jewish applicants for housing in more Israeli towns. Below are some of the many ways Christians are facing discrimination and danger.

On July 24, 2024, armed settlers, backed by police, evicted the Christian Kisiya family from their land in the beautiful Al Makhrour Valley of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem. Despite having a legal land deed issued by the Israeli Civil Administration, the army issued a "closed military area order," allowing settlers to remain while the family was forced off their land, which is in an area designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Settlers have erected a gate to keep the family out. A popular restaurant they had built on their property was destroyed four times by Israelis. The family’s story has been covered by The World Council of Churches and media around the world.

In June, 2024, Israeli municipal authorities in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, Nazareth, and Ramle announced they would impose taxes on churches there take legal action against the churches for nonpayment. According to local church officials, Israel is making a bold move to reverse understandings that have existed since the Ottoman Empire whereby religious institutions do not pay taxes. The heads of major Christian denominations in Israel sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying, “We believe these efforts represent a coordinated attack on the Christian presence in the Holy Land.” According to the US State Department, in Israel “recognized religious communities are exempt from the taxation of their places of worship.” As the government of Israel moves further under the control of Jewish fundamentalists, the concept of religious co-existence is being severely tested.

Like other Palestinians, Christians are subjected to arrest without charge. A prominent recent example is that of Layan Nasser. On April 7, 2024, 23-year-old Layan Nasir, who is a Palestinian Christian, was taken at gunpoint from her parents' home in the West Bank in the town of Birzeit. No arrest warrant or charges were provided. The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a statement saying he is “deeply shocked and concerned” by the news and has called for her swift release. He said that the withholding of evidence or charges “leaves her facing unknown allegations with no way to disapprove them – not knowing when she will be released, all the time without being charged, tried or convicted.” In July, Layan’s term was extended for another four months. The Archbishop condemned Israel’s widespread use of administrative detention of Palestinians as a “deeply discriminatory” practice that “cannot be legally or morally justified.” At the end of June 2024, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) was holding 3,340 Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim, in administrative detention.

In March 2024, armed settlers and guard dogs descended on property owned by the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem’s Old City which has existed there since the 4th Century. Bulldozers hired by a Jewish developer began demolishing Armenian property to build a luxury hotel. The developer claimed to have leased the property and said that the dining hall of the Armenian seminary, a private garden and parking area and the homes of five Armenian families would be destroyed. The church is contesting the unauthorized arrangement, which would deal a heavy blow to the Armenian Christian presence in the Holy Land and is seen as further evidence of efforts to evict Christians.

According to a report from the Christian group Ministry Watch, “Since the beginning of the year [2023], extremists have also desecrated graves at the cemetery of the Anglican church on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, and a visiting Jewish American destroyed a statue of Jesus at the Church of the Flagellation on the Via Dolorosa.”

Rubble left by bulldozers demolishing property of the Armenian church in Jerusalem’s Old City – Photo by Janet Lahr Lewis

Also in 2024, illegal settlers began building a road and structures on the property of a Christian family that has owned a large farm south of Bethlehem for over 100 years. Already they had seen the road to their property blocked with boulders by Israelis. Electricity and water have been denied to them, although these are provided to the illegal settlements that surround them. Although they have clear ownership documents, their land has been declared state land by Israeli authorities, and they have been forced to spend large sums defending their rightful ownership in the courts. You can learn more about the family’s ordeal at https://fotonna.org/category/update/

In 2023, attacks on Christian cemeteries and clergy by Jewish extremists increased markedly. They were part of a surge in Jewish attacks on Palestinians well before the October attacks by Hamas. Below are some examples:

Inside the Old City in Jerusalem, Christian priests and pilgrims endured a number of spitting attacks by Israeli Jewish extremists as they walked on the Via Dolorosa. These were covered in an article in the Catholic Review.
On May 28, 2023, Pentecost Sunday, dozens of Orthodox Jews surrounded Christians praying in the Old City and accused them of being missionaries. A few of the protesters physically assaulted the Christians.”
In Haifa in 2023, a radical ultra-orthodox Jewish group began a series of attempts to take over the historic Stella Maris Monastery, causing great concern to local Christians. The diocese was forced to build a large fence around the property, making access more difficult for the entire community.

Stella Maris Monastery in Haifa

Attacks on Christians and churches in the Holy Land have been ongoing for years.

In 2021, Israeli vandals pried the large cross from its base in front of an ancient church on the Mount of Beatitudes on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee and stole it. The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes is an important Catholic pilgrimage site in Tabgha, Israel, where Christians believe Jesus performed the miracle of feeding a crowd of 5,000 with a small quantity of bread and fish.

On June 18, 2015, Jewish extremists set fire to the Church of the Multiplication, mentioned above. The fire did considerable damage. Israeli news channels covered the arson attack, which took eight months and cost $1m to repair.

Christian residents of Taybeh have suffered repeated attacks from settlers in the four surrounding settlements. In November, 2019, they torched a family’s car. Earlier that year, they assaulted a group of nuns. Israeli forces often prevent Palestinians from accessing their lands nearby. See Israeli settlers target Christian Palestinians in West Bank town.

In August 2015, bulldozers demolished trees on Christian-owned land in the beautiful Cremisan Valley near Bethlehem to make way for a planned massive three-story wall separating a historic monastery and its monks from the convent, school, and Palestinian people they serve. The monastery and fertile convent fields were to be annexed to Israel, which had already taken more than 70% of Bethlehem’s farmland. Fifty-eight Christian families lost their orchards, farms and livelihoods. See 2020 article in Independent Catholic News.

Christians hold service near Crimesan Monastery to protest takeover of their lands by Israel - Photos by Janet Lahr Lewis

The separation wall and an illegal settlement seen from a Christian family’s home in Bethlehem. Photo: Susanne Hoder.

Beyond the specific attacks, Israeli efforts to squeeze the Christian population of the Holy Land have been ongoing for years. A 26-ft high snaking concrete wall has been built through the town of Bethlehem, and though the entrance might look like a normal checkpoint, it has had a devastating impact on the town’s economy, cutting it off from Jerusalem.

For years, Christians as well as Muslims had to rise as early as 2 am if they lived in the West Bank to make the long commute to work through one of Israel’s checkpoints, like the one inside Bethlehem pictured on the right.

According to a 2023 article in Today’s Catholic, “Bethlehem has been cut off even from other communities in the West Bank and its streets are empty.” Bethlehem business owners cannot get supplies and parts needed to sustain their livelihoods. The Bethlehem bus company, owned by a Christian family, was one of many forced to close. Even in normal times, Israel controls the tourism industry and discourages visitors from staying overnight in Bethlehem, so hotels and restaurants are often empty.

Palestinian workers waiting at a checkpoint in Bethlehem in 2012.

Israelis have segregated roadways and modern checkpoints like the one below, also in Bethlehem. In 2010, a group of American Christians was turned away from this checkpoint and forced to use the Palestinian checkpoint pictured above.

Checkpoint in Bethlehem area for Israeli drivers.
American Christians were turned away in 2010 and forced to use the Palestinian checkpoint pictured above. Photo by Susanne Hoder

Israeli soldiers often enter the Deheishei and Aida refugee camps in Bethlehem to conduct violent raids. In the past, Christians living nearby have reported signs of trauma among their children who often heard gunfire from military helicopters over the camps throughout the night. Most residents of the camps are now Muslims, though there are some Christians. Aida camp was named for one of its early Christian residents.

In 2002, Israel’s military placed the entire city of Bethlehem under an extended siege. Israeli tanks rolled through Bethlehem’s streets, sometimes firing into homes. Christians, including the bellringer at the Nativity Church, were among those killed. Many houses and the Church of the Nativity still bear bullet holes from that siege.

Priests celebrating Mass in the Church of the Nativity. Photo – Susanne Hoder

Checkpoint delays and arbitrary detentions have taken the lives of Christians and Muslims alike. The father-in-law of the Christmas Lutheran Church pastor in Bethlehem died after being detained by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint while being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance after a heart attack. For more, see Rev. Raheb’s book Bethlehem Besieged.

Olive trees, the mainstay of the Palestinian economy, have been destroyed throughout the West Bank by Israelis, and many of these belong to Christian families. Volunteers are working hard to plant new seedlings, but these can take many decades to produce fruit.

On Dec. 16, 2023, the Missionaries of Charity convent located on the compound of Holy Family Parish, the only Catholic church in Gaza, was severely damaged by an Israeli rocket, rendering it uninhabitable. The convent housed disabled people who had to be moved elsewhere.
On December 16, 2023, Israeli snipers shot dead an elderly mother and her daughter in the church courtyard. Pope Francis condemned the attack saying: “Some say, ‘This is terrorism. This is war.’ Yes, it is war. It is terrorism.”
On the same day, the Missionaries of Charity convent located on the compound of Holy Family Parish, the only Catholic church in Gaza, was severely damaged by an Israeli rocket, rendering it uninhabitable. The convent housed disabled people who had to be moved elsewhere.
On November 13, 2023, an elderly Christian organist and music teacher sheltering in the church was shot by an Israeli sniper as she tried to retrieve fresh clothes from her nearby home. She bled to death over many hours as snipers fired on all who tried to come to her aid.
On July 7, 2024, the Sacred Family School on the grounds of the Holy Family Church was hit during an Israeli military bombardment. The air strike targeted two classrooms on the ground floor of the school sheltering a large number of displaced Palestinian families. Four people were killed.

Attacks on Christians in Gaza

The Church of St. Porphyrios in Gaza, the third oldest Christian church in the world, was hit for the second time by an Israeli missile on August 9, 2024. Israeli planes bombed the church compound on October 19, 2023. Eighteen Palestinian Christians sheltering there were killed and the church itself sustained significant damage. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued a statement saying, “targeting churches and its affiliated institutions…. constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored.” The church was also damaged during a 2014 Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip which killed more than 2,000 Palestinians.

About 600 displaced Gaza Christians took shelter for more than a year in the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City. As of November 2024, that number dwindled to about 155 as some people have died because of lack of medicine, and many have fled the area. Some of its members have been killed in Israeli attacks and a convent on the church property has been bombed. The following attacks on the church and its parishioners have been condemned by the Pope and the Association of Catholic Bishops:

Nahida Anton and her daughter Samar,
who were killed by an Israeli sniper in the courtyard of the Holy Family Church.
Credit: Father Gabriel Romanelli/Facebook

Music teacher Elham Farah. Image: Salma el Rais

On July 7, the Israeli army forced the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City to close and evacuate all patients and staff after declaring the hospital’s immediate vicinity a “red zone” and conducting a series of drone strikes nearby, according to a statement from the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem which operates the hospital. The hospital is funded by Episcopalians, Anglicans and the United Church of Christ. It has resumed operations on and off since July, but with severely limited capabilities.
On October 14th, 2023, the same hospital received Israeli warnings to evacuate, but the administration decided that was impossible given the violence raging all around and the condition of the patients. Three days later the hospital compound suffered a devastating explosion that killed more than 470 civilians and wounded hundreds of others, many of them children who were sheltering there. Israel claimed this disaster was caused by an errant Palestinian missile. However, Forensic Architecture, a prestigious British research group, conducted a thorough investigation of the blast and the types of injuries it caused and determined that the cause was most likely an Israeli fragmentation bomb. An article in Christianity Today describes the aftermath.

The Gaza Baptist Church was partially destroyed during Israeli bombings in 2008, after which the church's pastor, and many of the congregation, fled the Gaza Strip. Those who fled to the West Bank have not been allowed to return to Gaza. As a result, some have not seen their families for years. The church was damaged again by Israeli bombings in October and December, 2023. The Israeli Defense Forces have at times operated from there. Some church members have fled to Egypt and beyond; others are sheltering in the remaining Gaza churches.

Bomb damage to the Gaza Baptist Church

Attacks on YMCAs

Over the past two decades, YMCAs throughout the West Bank have suffered raids and attacks by the Israeli army with arrests of Christian staff members.

On December 17, 2023, The YMCA building in Gaza City was bombarded, with reports of loss of life and injury. The World YMCA issued the following statement: “In these last weeks, the building and its nearby churches have been a place of shelter for hundreds of people since the attacks on Gaza started in October. The YMCA has always been a place of welcome, service – and opportunity – for everyone in its community. The World YMCA strongly condemns this horrific attack on civilians and calls on the Israeli government to stop its acts of indiscriminate violence which can only deepen division, and which are causing such trauma. Violence begets violence. End it now.”

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