(ZENIT News / Jerusalem, International City, 04.07.2025).- Jerusalem, a city revered for millennia as sacred to three major faiths, now finds itself at the heart of a growing crisis for one of its smallest religious communities. The annual report released Monday, March 31, 2025, by the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue paints a sobering picture of the challenges faced by Christians in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
In 2024, a total of 111 incidents targeting Christians were recorded, ranging from verbal harassment to physical assaults on clergy and vandalism of churches and holy sites. Thirty-five of these attacks were directed specifically at religious properties—sacred spaces turned into symbols of vulnerability. While Christian leaders have long warned of escalating hostility, this year’s figures show a trend that is no longer sporadic but systemic.
The perpetrators? In most identified cases, young ultra-Orthodox Jewish men associated with religious nationalist groups were behind the assaults. And while these are individuals, their actions are seen by many as symptoms of a wider climate—one in which political shifts have normalized religious intolerance.
“The climate has changed,” said one church official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s not just about individual extremists anymore. There’s a sense that the state is looking the other way—or worse, setting the tone.”
The Rossing Center, an interfaith organization that runs the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations, emphasized in its report that the sense of insecurity among Christians is not merely anecdotal. A survey included in the report found that nearly half (48%) of Christian youth under 30 are seriously considering leaving the region. Among those, 77% cited increasing discrimination and violence as the primary reason.
This quiet exodus is particularly stark in Jerusalem, where the Christian population is barely a sliver of what it once was. Of the city’s nearly one million residents, 13,000 are Christians—just 4% of its Arab population and a fraction of a fraction of the total. In contrast, the Jewish population continues to rise, driven in part by government-supported settlement expansions in East Jerusalem.
That growth isn’t coincidental. The report places it within a larger strategy of “Judaization,” a term that has increasingly entered public discourse as Israel accelerates plans to construct over 11,000 new housing units for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem. Coupled with demographic shifts—such as the rise of Orthodox Jews now comprising 29% of the city’s residents—the trajectory is clear.
Legally, these demographic policies are bolstered by the 2018 Basic Law, which defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Critics argue this law has eroded the inclusive principles previously enshrined in the 1992 Basic Law, titled “Human Dignity and Liberty.” While the newer law has limited practical effects, its symbolic weight is significant—it enshrines a hierarchy of identity in a land long marked by coexistence.
“This is not just about attacks on churches,” said a Christian academic in Haifa. “It’s about a foundational change in how we are viewed—not as fellow citizens, but as tolerated guests.”
Christians in the Holy Land face additional challenges beyond religious discrimination. In northern regions like Galilee, organized crime has taken a heavy toll on Arab communities, with over 230 killings last year alone. Though Christians are not usually involved in these networks, they often find themselves caught in the crossfire, living under the dual burden of marginalization and violence.
Property disputes further complicate their position. The Custody of the Holy Land, which oversees many Christian religious sites, remains embroiled in multiple legal battles with municipal authorities over taxes, land rights, and zoning laws. While synagogues and mosques often benefit from broader tax exemptions, Christian institutions—especially schools and pilgrimage hostels—struggle under administrative pressure.
These overlapping issues create a perfect storm of disillusionment for a community that traces its roots back to the earliest days of the faith. With fewer births, more emigration, and mounting legal and social pressures, some fear that the Christian presence in the land of its origin may dwindle into symbolic memory.
Still, the report is not without hope. The Rossing Center continues to advocate for interfaith understanding and legal reforms to protect minority rights. And many Christians remain deeply committed to staying—not just out of duty to heritage, but out of faith in a better future.
“We will not disappear,” said a priest in the Old City of Jerusalem. “But we need allies. We need voices—Jewish, Muslim, and international—who will not let us be forgotten.”
In a city where every stone tells a story, the question now is what kind of story the Holy Land will tell about its Christian children in the decades to come.
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