Palestine sounds alarm about ‘unprecedented’ Israeli assault on churches

RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL

Palestine on Friday warned of an “unprecedented” Israeli assault on churches in the territory as part of a “systematic campaign to eradicate Christian presence.”

The Higher Presidential Committee of Church Affairs in Palestine pointed to “an unprecedented assault on the churches of the Holy Land, led by a direct attack on the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem.”

“These actions are part of a systematic policy aimed at dismantling the authentic Christian presence in Palestine and stripping the land of its historic religious institutions,” it said.

The committee explained that on Thursday “Israeli occupation authorities have frozen the bank accounts of the Patriarchate and imposed crippling, unjust taxes on its properties.”

“Such measures severely threaten the Church’s ability to provide spiritual, humanitarian, and community services, constituting a flagrant breach of the historic Status Quo and a gross violation of international law and binding agreements,” Ramzi Khouri, PLO Executive Committee member and Head of the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, said in a letter addressed to church hierarchs worldwide.

The committee added that “the assault extends beyond financial strangulation.”

“Lands belonging to the Orthodox Church around the Monastery of Saint Gerasimus (Deir Hijleh) near Jericho have been targeted through aggressive settlement expansion,” it said. “In the past two years, new illegal settlement outposts have been established in the Jericho area, posing a direct threat to its historic and sacred character and forming part of a broader plan to erase Palestine’s Christian and historical identity.”

The Higher Presidential Committee stressed that “these practices come within the broader occupation policy aimed at changing Jerusalem’s identity, erasing its religious and cultural character, and ultimately eliminating the Palestinian presence in the city.”

The letter concluded with an urgent appeal to churches and Christian institutions worldwide to “take immediate political, legal, and media action to halt these violations and defend the Church’s freedom to carry out its spiritual and humanitarian mission.”

“Protecting the churches of Palestine is a collective responsibility and a historic trust,” the committee affirmed.

In recent years, Israeli authorities have escalated measures demanding that historic churches in Jerusalem pay taxes.

Churches also say Israeli authorities facilitate the takeover of church-owned properties in the city by Israeli settler groups, as is happening in the Bab al-Khalil (Jaffa Gate) area of Jerusalem’s Old City.