Israel: More than 80 attacks against Christians in three months, the figure that weighs heavily

Context

We reported in issue 2 the joint call of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, launched on July 3, 2026, to protect the Christian presence in the Holy Land. Three days later, Vatican News publishes a figure: more than 80 attacks have been recorded against Christians in Israel between April and June 2026. The count includes physical assaults, spitting on clergy, desecrations, and intrusions into places of worship. The violence is concentrated in Jerusalem and Nazareth.

The Facts

According to the report of the Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC) relayed by Vatican News on July 6, 2026, more than 80 attacks against Christians were documented in Israel in the quarter from April to June 2026. Recorded are: verbal and physical assaults, often committed in broad daylight and sometimes by minors, desecration of places of worship, spitting on clergy in religious habit. Aid to the Church in Need, in its 2026 report on religious freedom, confirms the general trend: the Christian community in Israel and the Palestinian territories has gone from about 20 percent of the population in 1948 to less than 2 percent today.

Doctrinal Analysis

The Church has a clear doctrine. The Second Vatican Council, in Nostra Aetate (n° 5, October 28, 1965), condemns any discrimination exercised against men because of their race, color, condition, or religion. The Compendium of Social Doctrine (n° 505) recognizes the protection of religious minorities as a fundamental right. The Franciscan Custody, guardian of the Holy Places by bull of Clement VI (Gratias agimus, November 21, 1342), recalls that the Christian presence in the Holy Land has an irreplaceable theological significance: it attests to the historicity of the Incarnation. Any policy that empties these places of their Christian substance gravely wounds the Catholic testimony.

Stakes for the Church

The near-disappearance of Christians from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth would not only be a human drama: it would deprive the People of God of their living memory. Palestinian and Arab-Israeli Christian faithful face a cornelian choice: leave or suffer. The Franciscan Custody, present without interruption in the Holy Places for nearly seven centuries, can only fulfill its vocation if supported by a living local community.

Critical Reading and Blind Spots

The major Western chancelleries, quick to denounce persecutions elsewhere, almost systematically abstain in the face of anti-Christian violence in Israel. The USA-Iran agreement of June 19, 2026, which could have included a clause protecting Christian minorities in the East, says nothing about it. This asymmetry confirms a recurrent blind spot in the Western discourse on religious freedom, regularly documented by the annual reports of Open Doors and Aid to the Church in Need.

To Reflect and Act

Let us not let the living stones of the Holy Land die out. Support AED, Open Doors, and the work of the Franciscan Custody, through prayer and donation. Write to our elected officials to demand that the protection of Christians in the East become a condition of any diplomatic agreement. Pilgrimage to the Holy Places remains, for every Catholic, a duty of memory and concrete solidarity.