By: Chioma Madonna Ndukwu
Israel Accused of Erasing Christian Presence in Palestine — Committee
A Palestinian committee has rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that protects Christians, accusing Israel instead of dismantling the Christian presence in Palestine since 1948.n
In a statement posted on Facebook, the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine said Israeli actions — including displacement, land seizures, and military assaults — have drastically reduced the Christian population in the region. The post included a photo of an Israeli tank outside the Church of the Nativity during the 2002 West Bank incursion.
According to the committee, Christians made up 12.5% of the population of historic Palestine before the 1948 Nakba. That figure has since fallen to 1.2%, and just 1% in the areas occupied in 1967. The group attributed this decline to what it described as ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, and systemic repression.
The statement cited the displacement of 90,000 Palestinian Christians during the Nakba, the forced closure of about 30 churches, and incidents such as the Semiramis Hotel bombing in Jerusalem in 1948, which killed 25 Christians, and the execution of 12 others in the village of Eilabun the same year.
The committee said that Christian sites and institutions have continued to suffer damage during recent conflicts, pointing to the bombing of the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius and the Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza. Hospitals and cultural centers affiliated with churches, such as Al-Ahli Arab Hospital and the Orthodox Arab Cultural and Social Center, were also targeted.
It reported that 44 Palestinian Christians have been killed since October 2023, either by direct bombardments or due to worsening humanitarian conditions. In the West Bank, the Christian village of Taybeh near Ramallah has faced repeated settler attacks.
The committee also accused Israel of financial and administrative pressures on Christian institutions, such as freezing the accounts of the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, imposing heavy taxes on church property, and seizing Armenian church lands.
Bethlehem, the committee added, faces particular strain, with military checkpoints, settlement expansion, and the separation wall restricting access and surrounding the city with more than 150 barriers.
“The Christian presence in Palestine has been systematically eroded,” the statement said. “This is not only a local issue but a global human, moral, and legal responsibility.”
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