Israeli attacks against Christians, clergy on the rise in West Bank: Palestinian pastor

Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb—a theologian and founder of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, and author of Decolonising Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible—spoke in an interview on Al Jazeera about the deepening crisis facing Palestinian Christians.
He described Israel’s harsh restrictions during Holy Week, with only 6,000 permits granted for Jerusalem and clergy blocked from entering holy sites. He pointed to a surge in settler violence, including 43 attacks on Christians this year, and the near-erasure of Gaza’s Christian community, where 3% have been killed in airstrikes. In the West Bank, more than 900 checkpoints isolate Bethlehem, deliberately strangling daily life.
Raheb condemned what he called the “Judaization” of Jerusalem, noting how settlers flooded the Old City during Passover while Christians were denied access, even Vatican diplomats were humiliated. He criticised the global church’s silence as complicity, urging Christians worldwide to stand against genocide in Gaza and colonisation in the West Bank. Without urgent action, he warned, Christianity in its birthplace risks becoming nothing more than a “theme park” with no living believers.

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Post from Al Jazeera on April 20, 2025

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