Christians

Rights center documents 83 Israeli attacks on Christians in 3 months, mostly in occupied Jerusalem

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Palestinian Christians attend a Christmas Mass at the Holy Family Church with Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa taking part in the service amid Israel’s blockade, in Gaza City, Gaza, on December 21, 2025. [Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency]

This April to June saw 83 Israeli attacks on Christians in Israel or Israeli-occupied territories in 76 incidents, most of them in Jerusalem, according to a report released Friday, Anadolu reports.

The report was issued by Israel’s Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC) and the its Hotline for Documenting Harassment against Christians in Israel, a nongovernmental center specializing in documenting attacks related to freedom of worship.

According to the report, 68 incidents took place inside Jerusalem, a city also revered by Christians. Two incidents were recorded in Haifa and the Galilee in northern Israel, one in the Sea of Galilee area, one in the West Bank, one in Beit Shemesh west of Jerusalem, and two in Mevaseret Zion west of Jerusalem. The report did not give the location of the remaining incident.

Of the 68 incidents recorded in Jerusalem, 46 took place in the Old City, 13 in West Jerusalem and nine on Mount Zion, a historic hill southwest of the Old City, the report said.

“As in previous reports, the high number of spitting incidents remains particularly striking. During this quarter, 47 incidents involved spitting, accounting for 56% of all recorded forms of harassment,” the RFDC said.

“In recent years, these acts have increasingly taken place openly, in broad daylight, and at times in a deliberately demonstrative manner. In several cases, perpetrators even explained to Hotline volunteers—and on camera—why they believed such behavior was justified,” it added.

The center said reported incidents included Israeli parents spitting and directing insults in front of their children, and encouraging them to do the same.

READ: Palestinian president urges Jerusalem churches to reject Israeli municipal tax, warns of threat to Christian presence

-Rise in harassment

As in previous years, the report noted a sharp increase in incidents during Jerusalem Day and the Flag March (28 Iyar on the Hebrew calendar), an annual Israeli event marking the occupation of East Jerusalem.

“While some incidents involved individuals acting alone, moving in groups appeared to encourage spitting and similar acts,” the report says.

The report said harassment and attacks are increasingly taking place openly in public spaces, with little hesitation from perpetrators. It cited a violent assault on a nun on Mount Zion and verbal abuse directed at a monk in a store.

The center says on its website that the reality in the Christian Quarter and the Old City of Jerusalem has long been sensitive and full of challenges and complexities, but that the situation changed radically for the worse in early 2023 with a rise in harassment.

In April, Israeli police prevented Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in East Jerusalem during Christian holidays, and imposed restrictions on Christians taking part in Easter celebrations at the church.

In recent years, Israeli extremists have been involved in spitting incidents targeting churches and Christian clergy in Jerusalem, along with attacks on holy sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank and the targeting of churches in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war that started in October 2023.

Churches around the world have also criticized Israel’s recent wars on Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, warning of their humanitarian and religious consequences.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace

Continue ReadingRights center documents 83 Israeli attacks on Christians in 3 months, mostly in occupied Jerusalem

Morning Star Editorial: Robinson’s ‘Christianity’ reflects US leadership of the global far right

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/robinsons-christianity-reflects-us-leadership-global-far-right

 Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, London, November 4, 2025

ANTI-RACISTS, many of them Christians, will challenge far-right agitator “Tommy Robinson” over his attempt to identify Christianity with his message of hatred this weekend.

Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) hosting a carol service is a surreal contrast to his normal routine of bigoted rants and spontaneous punch-ups.

He supposedly found God while in prison for contempt of court for repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee, though he hasn’t shown much contrition for his violation of the Ninth Commandment since. Indeed this is hardly a Damascene conversion given Robinson’s priorities (railing against immigrants and Muslims) seem exactly the same as before.

The recent emergence of Christian nationalism in Britain may have less to do with Robinson’s spiritual journey than with the influence of Donald Trump’s United States over the global far right.

Robinson is always acutely alert to where the money is and the US Christian right is awash with it. We also know, from the White House’s new national security strategy, that it hopes to reshape Europe in its own image.

It declares Europe at risk of “civilisational erasure” from immigration, commits itself to “help Europe correct its current trajectory” and identifies the “the growing influence of patriotic European parties” as the means to do so.

This is a potentially huge boost to the far right in countries like Britain. But it can be turned into a weakness.

A boost, because resources matter.

Robinson has already had legal fees paid by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who addressed the huge far-right demonstration held in London in September.

Their movement will have access to enormous funds, enabling effective propaganda operations and paid organisers.

It’s backed by the most powerful country on Earth — something we saw hints of in the succession of far-right figures hosted by US Vice-President JD Vance on a so-called holiday in England last summer, under the very noses of the supposedly allied British government he was working to undermine.

A factor which again benefits the far right: the liberal Establishment cannot conceive of a breach with Washington, and continues to lick the boots that are kicking it in the ribs. Most recently with a craven surrender to US demands over NHS drug pricing, which will raise the cost of medicine and cost British lives.

But that’s why the apparent asset of being a US asset can be turned against the insurgent right.

Robinson is not the only recipient of US largesse. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is also linked to the US “Maga” movement (he has received free services from the PR firm Capital HQ, linked to Steve Bannon, and is notorious for his frequent transatlantic trips).

Its economic priorities, in particular an acceleration of healthcare privatisation by proposing vouchers allowing access to private providers, align with the US aim — openly avowed in documents like Project 2025 — of turning the NHS into a cash cow for US companies.

We should expose the foreign money behind these so-called “patriotic” movements — and the similarity between the far right’s fixation with privatisation and deregulation with that of Tory and Labour governments. The flood of ex-Tories joining Reform do so because it is a Tory party: it is not “anti-Establishment” at all.

And our message in calling out Robinson’s perversion of the Christian spirit needs to look beyond him to the normalisation of cruelty in the political mainstream.

At Christmas Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, born in a stable, child refugee from King Herod, who urged his followers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger and visit the prisoner.

That message damns a government that cuts benefits, hounds asylum-seekers and is ready to let eight brave hunger-strikers, some jailed for over a year already though none have faced trial, starve to death rather than address the injustice it has done them.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/robinsons-christianity-reflects-us-leadership-global-far-right

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Robinson’s ‘Christianity’ reflects US leadership of the global far right

Another Somber Christmas in Palestine as Gaza Genocide Continues

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Palestinian Catholics attend Christmas mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine on December 24, 2024. (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“I wish the war would end and we could return to our homes in peace,” said one little girl whose grandmother was killed by an Israeli sniper.


Palestinian Catholics attend Christmas mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine on December 24, 2024.

 (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Another Somber Christmas in Palestine as Gaza Genocide Continues

“I wish the war would end and we could return to our homes in peace,” said one little girl whose grandmother was killed by an Israeli sniper.

Brett Wilkins

From the illegally occupied “little town of Bethlehem” in the West Bank to a pair of churches in Gaza where Israel’s bombs and bullets have killed clerics and congregants alike, Palestinian Christians marked another somber Christmas amid a relentless Israeli assault whose victims on Wednesday included refugees sheltering in tents and medical staff and patients at a besieged hospital.

For the second year in a row, public Christmas celebrations were canceled at the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, which is built over the spot where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born.

“This should be a time of joy and celebration. But Bethlehem is a sad town in solidarity with our siblings in Gaza,” Lutheran Pastor Munther Isaac said during his Christmas sermon at a church whose nativity display again had baby Jesus lying in a pile of rubble.

“It’s hard to believe that another Christmas has come upon us and the genocide has not stopped,” Isaac added. “Decision-makers are content to let this continue. To them, Palestinians are dispensable.”

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In Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian Christians huddled in two churches amid ongoing attacks by Israeli forces.

“This year, we will conduct our religious rites and that’s it,” Ramez Souri told The New York Times at the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City. “We’re still in mourning and far too sad to celebrate, or do anything except to pray for peace.”

Hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering on the grounds of the 12th century church—Gaza’s oldest—when Israeli forces bombed it in October 2023, killing 18 people including Souri’s three children and relatives of former Republican U.S. Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan.

In a pre-Christmas homily at Holy Family Church in Gaza City—Gaza’s only Catholic church— Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told congregants, “You have become the light of our church in the entire world.”

“At Christmas, we celebrate the light and ask: Where is this light?” Pizzaballa continued. “The light is here, in this church.”

“I don’t know when or how this war will end, and every time we approach the end, it seems like we start anew,” he added. “But sooner or later, the war will end, and we must not lose hope. When the war ends, we will rebuild everything: our schools, our hospitals, and our homes. We must remain resilient and full of strength.”

Like St. Porphyrius, Holy Family has suffered a deadly Israeli attack. Last December, an Israeli sniper shot Nahida Khalil Anton, the elderly matriarch of the largest Catholic family in Gaza, as she crossed a courtyard in the church compound on her way to the bathroom. Her daughter Samar was shot in the head when she rushed out to try and help her mother.

Both women died. Seven other people were shot and wounded. Israeli soldiers and veterans have said that they were given permission and even orders to shoot anyone who moves in parts of Gaza.

"I wish the war would end and we could return to our homes in peace." A Christian Palestinian girl in Gaza wishes for peace on Christmas Day amid Israel's war, at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City.

— (@aljazeera.com) 2024-12-25T13:52:21.908Z

On Sunday, Pope Francis—who in a new book called for a genocide investigation of Israel’s war on Gaza—said: “Yesterday, children have been bombed. This is cruelty; this is not war.”

The cruelty continued on Christmas as Israeli attacks throughout Gaza killed at least 13 people, according to officials. The dead include people sheltering in a tent northwest of Khan Younis, Palestine Red Crescent Society volunteer Alaa al-Derawi—who was shot in the chest while at work transporting patients—and Walaa al-Faranji, a well-known fashion designer, author, and photographer who was killed along with her husband Ahmed Salama in an airstrike on their home in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Local media also reported continued Israeli shelling and attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, where staff and scores of patients including premature babies have endured weeks of siege conditions.

All told, Gaza and international agencies say that at least 45,361 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than 107,800 others wounded by Israeli forces since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. At least 11,000 other Gazans are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings. Millions more Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.

Thousands more people have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Last month, the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, as well as for Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Back at St. Porphyrius, parishioners pooled what little food they could find to prepare a communal Christmas Eve meal. Although many Gazan Christians have expressed fears that their community—one of the oldest Christian communities in the world—could be wiped out by Israel’s genocidal onslaught, the holiday meal represented a faint glimmer of hope.

“We wanted to do something to show that we’re still here,” Souri explained, “despite it all.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Continue ReadingAnother Somber Christmas in Palestine as Gaza Genocide Continues