Executive Summary
The Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue’s 2025 report, Attacks on Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem, documents 155 incidents of harassment, physical violence, property damage, and defacement of Christian symbols throughout the year. While the report presents itself as an empirical documentation of religious intolerance, a critical reading reveals something far more disturbing: a systematic pattern of state-enabled, ideologically-driven persecution of Christians that flows directly from foundational principles of political Zionism as they manifest in contemporary Israeli society. This analysis will argue that the incidents documented are not random acts of individual bigotry but rather logical expressions of a political theology that views non-Jewish presence in the Holy Land—particularly Christian presence—as an illegitimate intrusion requiring elimination or subjugation.
Part One: The Architecture of Exclusion—Beyond “Isolated Incidents”
The Rossing Center report adopts a framework it calls “Squeeze and Smash” events, distinguishing between high-impact violence (“smash”) and low-grade but cumulative harassment (“squeeze”). While analytically useful, this framework inadvertently obscures the systemic nature of the phenomenon. The report itself notes that “the recorded incidents represent only a fraction of the actual occurrences, serving as the ‘tip of the iceberg.'” What requires examination is the iceberg itself: the ideological and structural conditions that make such harassment not only possible but normalized.
The Statistical Portrait as Ideological Symptom
Of 155 documented incidents in 2025, physical attacks (61 cases) and property attacks (52 cases) predominate. Verbal harassment nearly doubled from 13 cases in 2024 to 28 in 2025. These figures, even as partial data, reveal a pattern with distinct characteristics:
- Targeting of visible Christian identity: Clergy wearing distinctive garments and crosses are overwhelmingly targeted
- Spatial concentration: The Old City of Jerusalem, Mount Zion, and the Armenian Quarter are hotspots
- Perpetrator demographics: Almost exclusively Jewish, predominantly teenagers and young adults from ultra-Orthodox and religious-nationalist (Hardal) backgrounds
The report’s own survey data is perhaps more revealing than its incident log. When asked about spitting at Christians, 3.7% of Jewish Israelis expressed support, including 2.5% who said they would personally spit. Among ultra-Orthodox respondents, support rose to 19%, with 12% admitting they would engage in the act themselves. Among 18-24 year olds, 12% supported or would commit the act.
These numbers, while appearing small, are catastrophic when placed in demographic context. Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population, with its high birth rate, is projected to become a demographic majority within decades. A community where nearly one in five members supports spitting on Christians as a religiously legitimate act is not a community with a “few extremists”—it is a community where Christian contempt has become normative.
Part Two: Zionism’s Theological Conflict with Christianity
To understand why Christians are targeted in contemporary Israel, one must understand Zionism’s foundational relationship to Christianity—not as a historical curiosity but as an active ideological force shaping state policy and popular consciousness.
The Replacement Theology of Political Zionism
Classical Zionism, despite its secular pretensions, fundamentally operates as a political theology that requires the displacement of both Islamic and Christian claims to the land. While much attention has rightly focused on Zionism’s conflict with Palestinian Islam, its conflict with Christianity is arguably more profound because Christianity poses a greater theological challenge.
Christianity claims that the Old Testament covenants find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ—a claim that, if true, would render redundant the Zionist project of Jewish national restoration. The Christian presence in the Holy Land, particularly the presence of ancient churches with uninterrupted histories dating to the apostolic era, serves as living testimony to this alternative narrative. Every priest in cassock, every cross displayed publicly, every procession through the Old City is a walking counter-narrative to the exclusivist Zionist claim that the land belongs to Jews alone.
From Theological Rivalry to Political Persecution
The shift documented in the Rossing Center report—from covert spitting to open harassment “in broad daylight, sometimes in front of crowds and even police officers”—reflects a deeper transformation. As Hebrew University lecturer Karma Ben Johanan argues in the report, Orthodox Jews “are not ‘raising the fences’ out of fear of Christianity… on the contrary, they part ways from previous, more lenient positions toward Christians precisely because they no longer fear them.”
This is a devastating insight that the report underplays. The establishment of a powerful Jewish state has removed the centuries-old dynamic of Christian dominance over Jews. But rather than producing mutual respect or religious pluralism, Jewish empowerment has produced what can only be described as triumphalist contempt. The weak no longer need to accommodate the strong; the strong can now express their true attitudes without constraint.
The report documents this explicitly: perpetrators include “uniformed soldiers”—agents of the state itself—engaging in anti-Christian harassment. When soldiers feel empowered to spit on clergy, we are no longer discussing isolated bigotry but state-enabled persecution.
Part Three: The Legal Framework of Discrimination
The Rossing Center report acknowledges that Israel lacks a formal constitution and that the 2018 “Basic Law: Israel—The Nation State of the Jewish People” declares that “exercising the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish People.” The report notes that this law “provides a constitutional and legal basis for discrimination between Israel’s citizens, clearly laying out the principles according to which Jewish citizens are to be privileged over and above other citizens.”
This cannot be separated from the phenomenon of anti-Christian violence. When the state legally enshrines Jewish supremacy, it sends an unmistakable message to the Jewish public: non-Jews are second-class citizens whose rights are contingent rather than inherent. The ultra-Orthodox and religious-nationalist youth who spit on Christian clergy are not acting contrary to the state’s values; they are enacting those values in their most visceral form.
The Visa Weapon
The report notes a “pervasive belief among Christian communities that reporting incidents to authorities is futile” and that “fear that reporting complaints may jeopardize their legal status or visas” discourages victims from coming forward. This is not paranoia but rational calculation.
The Israeli state exercises enormous control over foreign clergy through visa policies. A church that alienates the authorities by insisting on its rights may find its priests unable to remain in the country. The report documents that “only 26% believed that residence should be allowed for an unlimited period” for clergy, with 74% of ultra-Orthodox respondents believing clergy should not be allowed to reside in Israel at all. These views have policy implications. The slow bureaucratic strangulation of foreign clergy through visa restrictions is a form of persecution as effective as physical violence, though more deniable.
The Arnona Offensive
The report discusses the ongoing dispute over Arnona (municipal property tax) on church properties. Churches have historically been exempt for properties used for religious purposes, based on agreements dating to Ottoman rule. The current challenge to this exemption is framed by the report as a “standoff,” but it can more accurately be described as a coordinated financial assault on the churches’ ability to maintain their presence.
Churches use their properties not only for worship but for schools, hospitals, pilgrim hostels, and charitable activities. Imposing taxes on these properties would force churches to either close vital community services or divert resources from their core religious missions. Either outcome serves the same goal: reducing the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
Part Four: The Denial of Christian Indigeneity
Perhaps the most psychologically damaging aspect of the harassment documented in the report is its message that Christians are “guests”—and unwelcome guests at that—in their own homeland.
The “Guest” Ideology
The report describes how “such behavior conveys a delegitimizing message that unsettles clergy who reside in Jerusalem, but especially local Christians, whose communities have formed an integral part of the city’s social, cultural, and religious fabric for centuries. For these communities, Jerusalem and the Holy Land are not external sites of pilgrimage but their historical homeland.”
The Zionist narrative has always struggled to account for non-Jewish indigeneity. If Jews are “returning” to their ancestral homeland after two millennia of exile, what does that make the Christians and Muslims who never left? The answer, implicit in the political theology of religious Zionism and explicit in the actions of its adherents, is that they are squatters, interlopers, guests whose temporary occupancy has expired.
The report documents a range of verbal harassment that makes this ideology explicit: “Armenians, go back to Armenia,” “Go back to your country, you have nothing to do here,” “This is our land,” “You have no business here.” These are not expressions of personal dislike but political statements about who legitimately belongs in the land—and who does not.
The Survey Data on Belonging
The report’s survey data reveals that 42% of Arab Christians in Jerusalem report feeling uncomfortable displaying religious symbols like the cross in predominantly Jewish environments. This is not abstract anxiety but lived experience of a public sphere that has become hostile to Christian visibility.
When a population feels compelled to hide its religious identity to avoid harassment, that population is living under a regime of religious persecution. The fact that this persecution is carried out by non-state actors (though with state tolerance) does not change its character.
Part Five: Restrictions on Religious Practice as Collective Punishment
The report’s detailed discussion of restrictions on the Holy Fire ceremony and other religious gatherings reveals a pattern that warrants the term “liturgical warfare.”
The Holy Fire as Case Study
The Holy Fire ceremony, observed by Eastern Churches on Holy Saturday, is described in the report as “not merely an official religious ritual or a focal point for pilgrims, but a major day of communal gathering” for local Arab Orthodox Christians. The ceremony involves tens of thousands of worshippers and includes the active participation of young people who “enter shortly before the appearance of the Holy Fire, singing and drumming.”
The report documents that “over the years… a persistent tension has developed between the legitimate need to ensure public safety and the desire of church representatives, local community members, and pilgrims to be present.” However, following the 2021 Mount Meron tragedy (a crowd crush at a Jewish religious gathering), authorities have “significantly reduced the number of attendees at highly important liturgies” for Christians.
The problem is not safety measures per se but their disproportionate application. The report notes that in 2025, restrictions were “felt particularly strongly” and that “multiple media sources highlighted the excessive use of force by the police.” One incident involved a border police officer aiming his gun at a member of the Greek Orthodox Scouts—a young person participating in his community’s religious heritage.
The Message of Exclusion
When Christians are denied access to their own holy sites for major religious celebrations—when they must “negotiate” each year for permission to worship in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—they receive a clear message: these places are not truly yours. You are permitted to worship only at the discretion of Jewish authorities.
The report documents that “on the day of the Holy Fire ceremony, numerous checkpoints are erected… and many Arab Christians report feeling that access to what they perceive as their home—the Christian Quarter—is denied to them.” This is not a metaphor. Christian residents of Jerusalem are being denied access to the Christian Quarter of the Old City to celebrate their most important religious holiday. The absurdity of this situation reveals its true nature: it is not about safety but about control.
Part Six: The Convergence of Anti-Christian and Anti-Arab Persecution
The report acknowledges that “for Palestinian Christians, these pressures intersect with the broader realities facing Palestinians across the region.” This intersection is crucial for understanding the full scope of the persecution.
Christians as Palestinians
The report notes that 78.8% of Christians in Israel are Arab, constituting 6.9% of the total Arab population. This means that most Christians targeted for harassment are simultaneously targeted for their Arab identity. When ultra-Orthodox youth spit on a Christian Arab in Jerusalem, they are expressing contempt for both religious and national identities.
The report documents that Arab communities in Israel experienced a record 252 murders in crime-related incidents in 2025, and that “the consequences of this violence are experienced also by Arab Christian populations as part of a broader pattern of insecurity and limited state action.” The state’s failure to protect Arab citizens from crime is well-documented; the addition of religiously-motivated harassment creates a double burden for Christian Arabs.
The West Bank Dimension
Although the report’s monitoring focuses on Israel and East Jerusalem, it notes that “Christians are not targeted specifically for their religion” in the West Bank “but as part of the broader Palestinian population.” The distinction is important, but it does not reduce the overall pressure on Christian communities. The town of Taybeh, described as “one of the last predominantly Christian villages in the West Bank,” suffered “repeated arson attacks, targeting both church and private property” in 2025.
When Christian communities in the West Bank are systematically attacked by settlers—attacks that the report notes increased by 25% in 2025—and when the state fails to protect them, the message is clear: Christians, like other Palestinians, are not entitled to security or dignity.
Part Seven: International Complicity and the Failure of Diplomacy
The report’s recommendations section acknowledges “the necessity for broader engagement from the international community to have a more substantial impact on Israeli authorities.” This is a diplomatic understatement. The international community has largely failed to address anti-Christian persecution in Israel, treating it as a minor issue compared to other conflicts in the region.
The Vatican’s Silence
The report notes that “the status of Church properties remains the central issue in negotiations between the Vatican and Israeli authorities, an ongoing process since 1993.” Thirty years of negotiations while Christians are spat upon in the streets. The Vatican, which has diplomatic relations with Israel, has been remarkably restrained in addressing the daily humiliations of its flock in the Holy Land. The report’s careful language cannot conceal this failure.
Western Complicity
Western governments that provide diplomatic, military, and economic support to Israel bear responsibility for the conditions documented in this report. The United States, in particular, provides billions of dollars in annual military aid to Israel while maintaining that Israel is a “vibrant democracy” where religious minorities are protected. This fiction enables the continuation of policies that make Christian life increasingly untenable.
The report documents that “social media in particular serves as a tool for cultivating a reciprocal dialogue” about these issues. But social media cannot substitute for diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, and political accountability. The international community has the tools to address anti-Christian persecution in Israel; it has chosen not to use them.
Part Eight: Toward an Honest Assessment
The Rossing Center report is a valuable document, meticulously compiled and carefully analyzed. Its recommendations—enhanced police intervention, training for officials, educational curricula, stronger condemnations from religious leaders—are reasonable and pragmatic. But they assume a political will that the report’s own evidence suggests does not exist.
The Limitations of the “Education” Framework
The report recommends “improving curricula about Christianity in the public education system” and “direct engagement with educational institutions within the religious-national sector.” But the problem is not ignorance. The ultra-Orthodox youth who spit on Christian clergy know exactly what they are doing; their actions are expressions of a coherent ideological system that has deep roots in Jewish tradition as interpreted by contemporary religious nationalism.
Education about Christianity will not change this unless it is accompanied by a fundamental reassessment of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity—a reassessment that the report notes “Orthodox Jews are not ‘raising the fences’ out of fear of Christianity” but precisely because they no longer feel threatened. Intellectual arguments against a position held with confident power are rarely effective.
The Specter of Christian Emigration
The report’s most chilling implication is one it states only indirectly. The Rossing Center “envisions societies which embrace religious, ethnic and national diversity as an asset rather than a threat.” The document’s detailed documentation of 155 incidents in one year—incidents that represent only the “tip of the iceberg”—suggests that Israeli society is moving in precisely the opposite direction.
The Christian population of the Holy Land has been declining for decades. This report, wittingly or not, documents the mechanisms of that decline: the daily humiliations, the legal and bureaucratic pressures, the restrictions on religious practice, the violence and intimidation. Each incident, individually minor, collectively creates an environment in which staying requires accepting a status of permanent inferiority.
The report notes that “the Christian population grew by 0.7% in the last year”—a figure that requires careful reading. This growth likely reflects the inclusion of foreign workers and asylum seekers, not natural increase among the indigenous Christian population. The Arab Christian population, which constitutes the vast majority of Christians in Israel, faces the same demographic pressures as the broader Arab population, but with the added burden of religious persecution.
Conclusion: The Culture of Hatred
The Rossing Center report documents a culture of hatred toward Christians that is neither accidental nor incidental but structural. It flows from:
- An exclusivist political theology that denies the legitimacy of non-Jewish presence in the land
- A legal framework that enshrines Jewish supremacy and enables discrimination
- A state apparatus that fails to protect Christian communities and, through visa policies and tax pressures, actively undermines them
- A religious establishment that has produced a generation of youth for whom contempt for Christians is normative
- An international community that enables this system through diplomatic silence and material support
The perpetrators of the incidents documented in this report are individuals, but they act within a system that encourages, enables, and excuses their behavior. When the state declares itself the nation-state of the Jewish people alone, when its legal system privileges Jews over non-Jews, when its political culture celebrates Jewish sovereignty while treating non-Jewish presence as a problem to be managed, the spitting on Christians is not a deviation from the system but its expression.
The Rossing Center’s work is essential, but its framework of “education and dialogue” assumes that the problem is misunderstanding rather than ideology, ignorance rather than conviction, extremism rather than norm. The evidence presented in its own report suggests otherwise. The culture of hatred toward Christians in Israel is not a pathology within Zionism; it is a logical expression of Zionism’s foundational claim that the land belongs to Jews alone.
Until that claim is confronted—until Israel embraces genuine equality for all its citizens regardless of religion or ethnicity—the attacks on Christians will continue. They will increase. And the Christian presence in the Holy Land, continuous since the day of Pentecost, will continue its slow decline toward extinction. The Rossing Center has documented the symptoms. The will to address the cause remains to be found.
