The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine has issued a scathing statement condemning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent address to the United Nations General Assembly, accusing him of peddling “outrageous lies” about the plight of Palestinian Christians under Israeli occupation.
Netanyahu’s speech – which portrayed Israel as a protector of Christian communities – has been branded a distortion of reality by Palestinian church leaders, who lay bare the devastating impact of Israel’s policies on the Holy Land’s ancient Christian heritage.
In their statement, the committee asserts that “it is Israel’s colonial policies of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide that have devastated the Christian presence in Palestine.”
They paint a stark picture of demographic decline, noting that “before the 1948 Nakba: Palestinian Christians made up 12.5% of the population of historic Palestine,” but “today just 1.2% remain in historic Palestine, and only 1% in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories.”
This “decline is the direct result of Israel’s ethnic-cleansing, forcible displacement, land confiscation and systematic oppression,” the statement charges.
Anti-Christian atrocities
The committee recounts a litany of historical and contemporary atrocities to substantiate their claims.
They highlight the Nakba era, during which “90,000 Palestinian Christians were expelled and nearly 30 churches forced to close.”
Specific incidents include “the Haganah’s 1948 terrorist attack on Jerusalem’s Semiramis Hotel that killed 25 Palestinian Christians” and the execution of “12 Christians in the village of Eilabun near Nazareth” by Israeli forces that same year.
Further underscoring the theme of forced displacement, the statement details the fates of the Christian villages of Iqrit and Kafr Bir’im in Upper Galilee.
“The Palestinian Christian villages of Iqrit and Kafr Bir’im in Upper Galilee were once home to thriving communities of nearly 570 residents in Iqrit and 1,050 in Kafr Bir’im,” it reads.
“In 1948, Israeli forces occupied both villages, ordering families to leave ‘temporarily’ under the pretext of military operations. Despite rulings from Israel’s own Supreme Court in 1951 affirming the villagers’ right to return, the government defied the decision. By 1953, Israeli forces had demolished every home in the two villages to prevent their return. Only the churches and cemeteries remain as silent witnesses to the crime of forced displacement.”
Gaza war
The ongoing war on Gaza draws particular ire, with the committee documenting how “even churches and church institutions were not spared.
Israeli airstrikes bombed the St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church and the Holy Family Catholic Church, massacring civilians sheltering inside. The Baptist Hospital and the Arab Orthodox Cultural and Social Center were also targeted.
Christian homes were destroyed, forcing families to seek refuge in churches – which themselves came under attack.” Since October 2023, “44 Palestinian Christians have been killed, either directly by Israeli bombings or indirectly due to lack of medicine and food, and the collapse of Gaza’s humanitarian system.”
West Bank
In the West Bank, the statement describes a pattern of settler violence and institutional harassment.
The Christian village of Taybeh “has been repeatedly terrorised by violent settler rampages,” while broader assaults include Israeli authorities “freezing the bank accounts of the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, [imposing] punitive taxes on church properties in violation of the Status Quo, and even [issuing] foreclosure orders to confiscate property belonging to the Armenian Church in Jerusalem.”
These actions, the committee argues, form “part of a systematic policy to weaken and undermine the Christian presence in the Holy Land.”
Daily indignities faced by Palestinian Christians are also cataloged: “clergy are spat on, assaulted, and intimidated; churches and cemeteries are vandalised; and Christian symbols are desecrated. Movement is tightly restricted by Israel’s apartheid wall and military permit regime. Even access to holy sites – particularly during Easter in Jerusalem – is denied. International pilgrims, too, face humiliation and abuse.”
Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus, emerges as a symbol of suffocation under occupation.
“Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, is today strangled by illegal settlements, military checkpoints, and the apartheid wall,” the statement laments.
“Lands belonging to Christian families are confiscated for settlement expansion. Bethlehem, once 37 square kilometers in area, has been reduced to just 7.3 square kilometers. Surrounded by more than 150 checkpoints, gates, and barriers, it is now a city under siege. Israel’s E1 colonial plan further deepens the isolation of Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings and threatens to erase Bethlehem’s historic ties to the Holy City.”
Defending Palestinian Christians
The committee’s declaration culminates in a resolute affirmation: “The truth is undeniable: it is Israel, who has decimated the Christian presence in the Holy Land. Netanyahu’s lies at the UN cannot erase history or the lived reality of Palestinians — Christian and Muslim alike — under Israeli colonial rule.”
Framing the issue as a universal imperative, they add: “Defending the Christian presence in Palestine is not only a Palestinian cause – it is a global moral, humanitarian, and legal obligation.”
In a series of urgent appeals, the Higher Presidential Committee calls on the world to act. They urge “the international community to hold Israel accountable for its systematic violations of international law and human rights.”
To “churches worldwide,” they implore: “speak with courage and clarity in defense of their sisters and brothers in the land of Christ.”
Finally, they press “the United Nations to ensure protection of freedom of worship and the Christian presence in Palestine, as part of its mandate to safeguard fundamental human rights.”
