Israel: the silent persecution of Christians is accelerating

We reported last week on the joint call by the Patriarchs of Jerusalem to defend the millennial Christian presence in the Holy Land. A report from the Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC), covering the second quarter of 2026 and relayed on July 6 by Vatican News, confirms their concerns: more than eighty attacks against Christians have been documented in Israel over the past three months.

Context

Since the resumption of hostilities in Gaza and the increasing militarization of Israeli society, interfaith tensions are intensifying in Jerusalem, Galilee, and several mixed cities. Christians, less than two percent of the population, are subjected to spitting, church vandalism, verbal abuse, sometimes physical, without the perpetrators being prosecuted. The domestic political context, dominated by a coalition integrating ultra-Orthodox parties and the religious far-right, disinhibits acts of violence.

The Facts

The RFDC report, cited by Vatican News, records more than eighty incidents between April and June 2026. The episodes include desecration of graves, arson of parish vehicles, stone-throwing at processions, and intimidation of Christian schoolchildren. The Œuvre d'Orient has long documented this pastoral erosion; it will be necessary to compare with the next annual report of the AED. What stands out is the almost systematic absence of local political condemnation.

Doctrinal Analysis

The Church has made the Holy Land one of its permanent priorities. John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter Redemptionis Anno of April 20, 1984, recalled that Jerusalem is a spiritual heritage common to the faithful of the three monotheistic religions, and that its Christian communities are entitled to a protected status guaranteeing the free expression of their faith. The Second Vatican Council, in Nostra Aetate n. 4, calls for fraternal respect among the sons of Abraham. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, at n. 421-427, recalls that religious freedom is the first of civil liberties and is appreciated by the concrete protection of minorities. Dignitatis Humanae, at n. 2, specifies that this right is rooted in the dignity of the human person itself. What Christians in Israel are suffering today constitutes the practical test of this.

Stakes for the Church and the Faithful

Without diplomatic intervention by the Holy See and without mobilization of Western Christians, the Christian presence in the Holy Land, already reduced from twenty to less than two percent of the population since 1948, will disappear in one generation. Living stones always precede dead stones.

Critical Reading and Blind Spots

A blind spot persists: Western media rarely separate the Christian cause from the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet Christians in the Holy Land are neither Arab Muslims nor Israeli settlers. Their cause requires distinct treatment.

To Reflect and Act

Pray for the Mother Church of Jerusalem, concretely support the Œuvre d'Orient and the AED, write to European elected officials so that the protection of Christians in the Holy Land is explicitly included in the European Union's association agreements.