Gunshots were fired by unidentified gunmen at a school and a convent of Franciscan nuns in Nazareth on March 16, while the nuns were gathered in prayer in the convent church. On Sunday, March 19, “two Israeli extremists” carried out a “terror attack” during the Sunday liturgy the Tomb of the Virgin Mary”, one of the most important churches for the Orthodox church, located opposite the Church of Gethsemane, in Jerusalem. These were the two most recent attacks on the Christian community of the Holy Land reported in Israel over the past few days. The incidents were immediately condemned by the leaders of the local Christian community. The Latin Patriarchal Vicar in Israel, Msgr. Rafic Nahara, sent a letter to the Minister of Education (copied to the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other officials), following the incident at the school and convent of the Franciscan Sisters, in Nazareth, asking that full light be shed on the incident, that such incidents may not happen again.
Nazareth. The Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem made known that the letter “expresses the position of the entire Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land.” In the letter, Msgr. Nahara calls it a “very dangerous precedent, since this is the first incident against a school of the Church in Israel. We take this incident very seriously – reads the text – because Christian monasteries and schools have consistently remained unscathed by the cycle of violence occurring across Arab society. It’s a miracle no one was hurt, it could have been a tragedy.” In the letter, the Minister of Education is asked to conduct, in conjunction with the Minister of National Security, “an in-depth, rapid investigation to identify the perpetrators, to ensure that similar incidents will not happen again in any school in Israel, and especially in Church schools.”
Jerusalem. The Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Patriarch Theophilos III decried the “heinous terrorist attack” on the Tomb of the Virgin Mary, claiming that the two Jewish extremists who committed the attack were, according to witnesses, wearing a “yarmulke” (traditional head covering) and a “tzitzit” (prayer shawl), stormed into the holy place with an iron bar in an attempt to hit the celebrant, “Archbishop Joachim, and a priest who was with him, who suffered a head injury, aiming to destroy religious items kept in the holy site.” The Israel Police said later in the day that “a 27-year-old resident of southern Israel had been arrested”, without giving any further information about the identity of the arrested man. The two incidents add to a string of violence that Christian leaders believe is the result of hate speech propagated by certain Cabinet members.
Long list of attacks. The desecration of a Christian cemetery on Mount Zion by Jewish extremists at the beginning of the year, acts of violence against tourists carried out by a group of orthodox Jews at the New Gate, near the seat of the Custody of the Holy Land, had transformed the Christian quarter into a battleground. Similarly, the renown “walk” of Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – a representative of the far-right political party ‘Otzma Yehudit’ (Jewish Power) – to the Esplanade of Mosques, the “Death to Christians” graffiti on the walls of a monastery in the Armenian quarter, and the vandalised premises of a church in the Maronite centre of Ma’alot, are among the most serious incidents. A Jewish extremist slammed with a hammer and defaced the face of a statue of Jesus in the Church of the Flagellation, the first stop on the Via Dolorosa, at the beginning of February. At the time, the Custody of the Holy Land had firmly condemned this “increasing sequence of severe acts of hatred and violence against the Christian community in Israel.”
“It is no coincidence – reads the communiqué released by Father Francesco Patton, Custos of the Holy Land and by Alberto Joan Pari, Secretary of the Holy Land – that the legitimization of discrimination and violence in public opinion and in the current Israeli political environment also translates into acts of hatred and violence against the Christian community. We expect and demand that the Israeli government and law enforcement agencies act decisively to guarantee security for all communities, to guarantee the protection of religious minorities and to eradicate religious fanaticism. We specifically refer to these serious incidents of intolerance, crimes of hatred, and vandalism directed against Christians in Israel.” In a statement released in the wake of the incidents, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches of Jerusalem had likewise denounced the “senseless cycle of violence that will only cause hurt and suffering to everyone. Such a state of affairs will almost certainly bring further atrocities and anguish, driving us away from the much sought-after peace and stability that we all seek.”
