Political climate sparks ‘notable increase’ in attacks on Israel’s Christians – NGO
Rossing Center report says authorities must do more to counter violence against clergy, pilgrims and church sites in Jerusalem and the Galilee
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

There was a “notable increase” in attacks against Christians and their property in 2023, according to a study released on Tuesday by an Israeli group.
Israeli authorities have been unable or unwilling to put an end to the phenomenon, said the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue’s report, titled “Attacks on Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem.”
The NGO attributed the rise to “the broader socio-political climate.”
“The ongoing shift towards the far-right, a growing sense of nationalism, and the emphasis on Israel primarily as a state for the Jewish population have collectively undermined both the legal and perceived sense of equality for any minority within the country,” said the report.
In 2023, according to the group, there were 11 instances of verbal harassment, seven violent attacks, 32 attacks on church properties, a cemetery desecration, and 30 formally reported cases of spitting at or toward clergy and pilgrims. The report noted that every clergy member the Rossing Center spoke to in 2023 said they were spit at multiple times a week.
The more violent attacks are carried about by young adults from “the marginalized part of ultra-Orthodox society,” Hana Bendcowsky, director of the Rossing Center’s Jerusalem Center for Jewish – Christian Relations, told The Times of Israel.
The harassment comes from a range of Israeli men — from children to adults, right-wing settlers to ultra-Orthodox — but all religious, she said.
There were other alleged violations as well. Religious figures were asked to remove crosses, and police sharply reduced the numbers of attendees allowed to the Holy Fire ceremony in Jerusalem on Easter, citing security concerns.

“When you address the authorities, usually, what they used to say back then when we initiated the project, is ‘We don’t know what you’re talking about, we don’t get any complaints,” said Bendcowsky.
Israel Police told The Times of Israel that the report presents a “partial and one-sided picture” of the situation.
“We take bullying, violence and acts of hate and vandalism of any kind seriously,” the police said. “Accordingly, any report or complaint received by the police about an attempt to harm religious figures, religious sentiments or holy places is examined and treated professionally and thoroughly with the tools that we have.”
The police condemned the “despicable behavior of any child, youth or adult who harms or tries to harm Christians.”
The Foreign Ministry told The Times of Israel that they share many of the concerns laid out in the report, and that there is “certainly room for improvement.”

At the same time, stressed the ministry, last year all of Israel’s senior leadership — including chief rabbis — made clear and public statements against attacks on Christians, and reaffirmed their right to live and worship in safety. Police are also operating much more forcefully against perpetrators, according to the ministry.
There has been some pushback against spitting from within the ultra-Orthodox community as well. Signs in Hebrew were hung in the Old City of Jerusalem ahead of the Passover holiday citing leading rabbis who specifically decry the attacks on religious grounds.
Bendcowsky, speaking at a press conference on the report in Jerusalem, attributed the hostile attitude among a small but growing minority in Israel to two factors — ignorance about Christianity in the country, and Christian persecution of Jews throughout the centuries.

“Jewish-Christian history is overshadowing and projecting over the relationship between Jews and Christians here in Israel,” she said. “We brought with us the history from Europe, and we project it on the local Christians and their symbols.”
The report offered a series of recommendations for Israeli authorities to counter the phenomena — enhancing police presence and intervention at critical sites; training to police and local authorities on Christian communities; establishing liaison positions in both the national government and Jerusalem municipality; improving curricula on Christianity in Israel’s schools; issuing stronger condemnations from authorities; encouraging Christians to report attacks; and increasing awareness among diplomats.
A phenomenon to be uprooted
Before the devastating Hamas attack of October 7 that started the ongoing war in Gaza, there were indications that Israeli authorities were taking the issue more seriously after years of complaints.
In August 2023, as part of his recent efforts to bring public awareness to the issue of the safety of the Christian community, President Isaac Herzog visited Haifa’s Stella Maris Monastery to meet with Christian leaders.

“In recent months, we have witnessed extremely serious phenomena in the treatment of members of Christian communities in the Holy Land, our brothers and sisters, Christian citizens, who feel attacked in their places of prayer and their cemeteries, on the street,” said Herzog in front of the 19th-century Carmelite monastery.”
“It is entirely unacceptable in every way,” said the president.
While there have long been periodic incidents of vandalism and harassment against Christian clergy in Jerusalem’s Old City, there was a noticeable rise in attacks in the lead-up to Herzog’s visit.
Pointing at the Jewish tradition that the Haifa monastery also houses the grave of the prophet Elisha, members of the Breslov Hasidic sect have been showing up at the Catholic complex and attempting to pray, leading to a number of physical altercations.
The local Catholic community has begun erecting a fence around the property to protect it.

“We must uproot this phenomenon from its roots,” said Herzog, referring to attacks on Christians and their holy sites across the country.
Seated next to Herzog at a discussion in the monastery with the heads of Christian communities in Israel, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said that police “are undertaking creative operations to eradicate all these small phenomena, these phenomena that affect how everyone feels. We are here to give you a feeling of security.”
Shabtai said that his force would do whatever it takes in the field to protect Christians.

Speaking in Hebrew, Latin Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa thanked the police for taking action, and the president for prioritizing the safety of Christian communities.
“We have to work together to encourage dialogue between us, solidarity between us, and brotherhood between us,” said Pizzaballa.
The Israel Police, which has been criticized for its inability to stamp out the phenomenon, showed renewed interest in the problem last summer.
Days before Herzog’s visit to Haifa, Jerusalem District Police Commander Doron Turgeman and Old City Precinct Commander Avi Cohen met with Christian leaders in the capital. Cohen presented steps the police were taking to counter attacks on clergy in the Old City.
According to police, 16 investigations were opened that year, and 21 arrests and detentions had been carried out in connection with attacks on Christians.

In November 2022, two soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces’ Givati Brigade were detained on suspicion of spitting at the Armenian archbishop and other pilgrims during a procession in the Old City. In early 2023, two Jewish teens were arrested for damaging graves at the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion.
The next week, the Maronite community center in the northern city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha was vandalized by unknown assailants over the Christmas holiday.
Jerusalem’s Armenian community buildings were also targeted by vandals, with multiple discriminatory phrases graffitied on the exterior of structures in the Armenian Quarter. In January 2023, a gang of religious Jewish teens threw chairs at an Armenian restaurant inside the city’s New Gate. Vandalism at the Church of the Flagellation occurred the very next week.
And in March of that year, a resident of southern Israel was arrested after attacking priests with an iron bar at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gethsemane.
Some, including the Rossing Center, tie the rise in aggressive behavior recently to the composition of the current Israeli government, which is made up of ultra-Orthodox and extreme-right factions fiercely protective of Israel’s Orthodox Jewish institutions and strongly opposed to public displays of Christian worship.