Anti-Christian hate crimes in Israel: Where are our chief rabbis?

The Times of Israel ^ | January 8 2023 | Faydra Shapiro

[euram]

A week ago, two young ostensibly religious Jews broke into the historic Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion and vandalized dozens of gravestones, including pulling down several crosses. One of the desecrated headstones included one with a bust of the second Protestant bishop in Jerusalem, the Reverent Samuel Gobat. The perpetrators carried out this shameless destruction proudly wearing kippot and tzitit (ritual fringed garment). All this was caught on a security camera, which you can see part of below.

[traderrob6]

HMMMMMMM, Interesting choice of articles to post this morning Euram

[FarCenter]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealots

[Wdempsey]

This posting reeks of bullshit. Israeli society has vandals too. You found an article begging for a headline rewrite to fit your agenda

[sauropod]

.

[GAgal]

Sounds like someone hoping to discourage “Holy Land Tours”.

[faithhopecharity]

The timing of this article is disquieting.

Israel remains the one middle-eastern country where Christians are not subjected to serious Islamic subjugation, added extra taxes, rampant discrimination, and a lot of abuse and harassment. (Egypt has its Copts and the current Egyptian government does seem to try to help protect them, at least in the south of the country. Christians in most other Moslem-dominated countries in the mideast are in serious trouble and the Muslims have largely expelled or driven the Christians out of Lebanon, previously a safe haven.)

By contrast, inn Israel anybody who molests or violates a Christian’s civil rights is breaking the Law. The perpetrators are usually hunted down and found, prosecuted, and punished. The Israeli government has ongoing public information campaigns about respecting Christians and all other people in the country. Christian religious functions and prayers are protected and the Israeli government has official direct outreach and assistance staff for Christian citizens.

So while nothing on this earth is perfect, it is perplexing why anyone would publish this sort of article just now while Israel was invaded and is fighting to defeat a very dangerous enemy. An enemy that, not incidentally, loves to terrorize, bomb, rape, and murder Christians at least as much as it likes to attack Jews. The Moslem terrorists are taught anti-Christian stuff from the crib... and there are anti-Christian Koran verses embossed all around the famous Moslem mosque sitting atop the Jewish Temple Mount mosque in Jerusalem.

Thus, Perhaps the subject of the (few) bad incidents could better be discussed later, after the war? It seems unnecessarily demoralizing at this critical juncture. Just saying... stay cool for at least the little while it takes for the IDF to finish defending the country and defeating the enemy.

[UnwashedPeasant]

There are radical kooks and mentally ill in every society.

Also there are false flag operations with Muslims dressing like Jews and doing things like this in front of cameras. This happened in the past week in NYC with a disguised Muslim tearing down hostage posters.

[Do_Tar]

Only had to go back 10 months to find an incident.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I’ve known of non-religious teens who thought it was fun to vandalize cemeteries sixty years ago.

[FarCenter]

Police arrest two teens for vandalizing Christian cemetery in Jerusalem

City’s police chief meets Greek Orthodox Patriarch to assure him attacks on religious institutions will not be tolerated; suspects ages 14 and 18 from central Israel

https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-arrest-two-teens-for-vandalizing-christian-cemetery-in-jerusalem/

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Looks like the old rules still apply, you become what you hate. All have fallen short of the glory of God. Forgive your enemies. Stop the cycle of hate!

[crz]

This is NOT anything new. There have been incidents in Jerusalem where Christians are verbally attacked, spit upon and physically attacked by Jewish.

There are several videos on the question and you all can simply go find them and educate yourself on this travesty.

[vladimir998]

“Only had to go back 10 months to find an incident.”

How about October:

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-police-arrest-five-hostile-gestures-towards-christians-2023-10-04/

I see a lot of people in this thread denying what has been known for years - there are a number of anti-Christian bigots in Israel and not all of them are Muslim.

Why are you all so afraid to admit the truth when this has been well documented for years?

[Flaming Conservative]

Christians (and Jews) have been and are going to be persecuted; it’s just a fact of life. It’s just too bad when they choose to persecute each other. FWIW, though, I don’t believe a Christian who persecutes Jews is a true Christian, or at least is in grave error and needs to repent. And whether you like it or not, the truth is, SOME Jews persecuted Christians right from the very beginning of Christendom, and still do.

[af_vet_1981]

Why are you all so afraid to admit the truth when this has been well documented for years?

Indeed, why are you ?

Seventy years ago, a significant number of Christians also called Bethlehem their permanent home; the population of the West Bank city and surrounding villages was nearly 90 percent Christian.

In 2016, the then-Mayor of Bethlehem, Vera Baboun, warned that the figure had dropped to 12 percent, or a mere 11,000 people.

Across the Palestinian Authority (PA)-administered West Bank, there are reported to be fewer than 50,000 Christians remaining, while in Gaza, which is ruled by the US-designated terrorist group Hamas, just 1,100 Christians are left.

And the crisis facing Christians in the Holy Land has not gone unnoticed.

Last December, the British Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, jointly penned an opinion piece with Palestinian Anglican Bishop Hosam Naoum, in which they lamented the decline of Christians in the birthplace of the religion, arguing that the actions of “radical groups” were responsible.

They explained that such acts had included the desecration of churches, in addition to physical and verbal attacks on priests, monks, and worshipers.

Yet, Archbishop Welby and Bishop Naoum preferred to ignore the stark reality on the ground, and blamed the precipitous decline of Christians to mysterious “fringe radical groups” and growing “settler communities.”

Such linguistic inexactitude masks the real reason that Christians are disappearing in the Holy Land, which, according to global Christian charity Open Doors, is actually the result of “Islamic oppression.”

Warning that Christians were leaving the West Bank in droves, the charity revealed that “Islamic extremist militants” were leaving Christians in fear of attacks, and said that the situation was even more perilous for converts to the religion, who face even worse brutality.

Another international nonprofit, The Voice of the Martyrs, which defends the rights of persecuted Christians, has collated numerous accounts of appalling abuse and torture meted out by the Palestinian Authority on its Christian minority.

One such testimony is that of Saif, a Christian convert from Islam, who lives near Bethlehem. He described how after being labeled a “Zionist infidel” by the Muslim muezzin (crier) over the mosque loudspeaker, he was summoned to the local police station. For weeks, he endured horrific torture, including being hung upside down for hours on end, threats of crucifixion, and violent interrogations.

Despite being released, PA forces continued to target him — and eventually, Saif was forced to flee to Jerusalem using a pass he had been issued for his work as a contractor.

In the Gaza Strip, the situation for Christians is even bleaker under the rule of Hamas.

This tiny Christian minority’s plight is exemplified in the horrific tale of Rami Ayyad, who had owned Gaza’s last Christian bookstore until it was firebombed just months after Hamas seized power in 2006 and imposed Islamic Sharia law.

Ayyad was kidnapped, tortured, and later murdered by an assailant who walked away unpunished, despite his identity reportedly being known to authorities.

The demise of Christianity in Palestinian-controlled areas is part of a more general pattern of Christians disappearing in the Middle East and North Africa.

In 2019, a UK-commissioned report laid bare the scale of the problem, describing their dwindling numbers as “coming close to genocide.”

[Colorado Doug]

Thank goodness a Muslim could not wear a kippot and tzitit or I would call BS. Oh wait, a Mussie could and would wear anything it took to stir up hate and discontent. Going to need more proof than what they have.

[cowboyusa]

Are you a Messianic Jew or Born Again Christian. They are the ones who should be upset, and yes, this upsets me.

[vladimir998]

I’m not. I freely admit that Muslims persecute Christians. And so do some religious Jews. Spitting in front of someone isn’t as bad as blowing them up but it’s persecution nonetheless. That’s just a fact.

[af_vet_1981]

I’m not. I freely admit that Muslims persecute Christians. And so do some religious Jews. Spitting in front of someone isn’t as bad as blowing them up but it’s persecution nonetheless. That’s just a fact.

It is a misleading fact, completely out of proportion to the numbers and extent of the persecution. If only Bethlehem was under Israeli control again!

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.