CV NEWS FEED // Israeli ultra-nationalist calls for a theocratic Jewish state have led to a rise in “anti-Christian sentiment and persecution” against Holy Land Christians, Fr Mario Alexis Portella writes in his latest op-ed for Crisis Magazine.
“Ever since the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, the West has been constantly exposed to the rise of anti-Semitism,” the Chancellor for the Archdiocese of Florence (Italy) wrote: “While this is tragic, equally displeasing has been the increase of Christian persecution in the Holy Land at the hands of Israeli nationals.”
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he explained, Christians living in the Holy Land have experienced increasing degrees of hatred and persecution, as a direct result of the “fervent growth of Israeli ultra-nationalism.”
Though Fr Portella maintains that while Israel is still the sole bastion of democracy in the Middle East, “the exercise of individual freedom has subtly and steadily been curbed for those who are not Jewish” on account of Netanyahu’s government.
Fr Portella cites various examples from the recent onslaught of anti-Christian acts that have taken place in the Holy Land in the past year. Incidents included “spitting, physical harassment, damage to property and cemeteries, and disruption of services.”
He further notes that the Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem has been a particular hotspot for religiously motivated attacks against Christians, with instances of vandalism at a Catholic church and the desecration of a Protestant cemetery.
Fr Portella also referenced the viral spitting attack against Fr Nikodemus Schnabel, the Abbot of Benedictine Abbey of Dormition, by two young ultra-orthodox Jewish men.
At the time, Fr Schnabel stated: “This would be my desire, that we are together fighting antisemitism, Christian hate, and Muslim hate, and that it not be the hooligans of religion who have the main part in the religious landscape but rather the God-seekers.”
Fr Portella notes both religious and historical reasons for Jewish animosity towards Christians—namely, Christians’ oppression of Jewish people in the Middle Ages and the completely antagonistic position toward Christianity in the Talmud.
However, the priest wrote: “It is unbecoming, to say the least, of a people who historically almost faced extinction during the Holocaust to behave in such a discriminatory manner toward Christians—and not just Christians.”
“They should remind themselves of how Catholic priests, nuns, and laypeople played a role in the rescue of hundreds of thousands of Jews from being murdered by the National Socialists,” he concluded.
