https://arab.news/yfwsr
While many Western world leaders appeared to wake up to Israeli harassment of Christians following last month’s entry ban on the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem and three priests attempting to hold Palm Sunday prayers in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, attacks on and harassment of Christian religious figures and laity in Israel and East Jerusalem have long preceded that incident.
The Israeli-registered nongovernmental organization the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue documented 155 cases of attacks against Christians in 2025, a 40 percent increase on the previous year. The incidents, which occurred mostly in Jerusalem and saw little accountability for Israeli perpetrators, included 61 physical attacks, 52 attacks on church property, 28 cases of harassment and 14 defacements of Christian signs.
Christians, many of them Arab, form a small but enduring minority and their fate is deeply tied to the health of Israeli society, the fairness of its institutions and the prospect for a just peace in a volatile region.
In Israel proper, Christians number roughly 184,000, about 1.9 percent of the population, with nearly four out of every five identifying as Arab. In Jerusalem, the picture is even more complex — as of 2022, the city housed about 597,000 Jews and 384,700 Arabs, including about 13,000 Christian Arabs, making the Arab share a substantial portion of the city’s tapestry.
