Israel failing to stop attacks on Christians, Jerusalem churches say
Visitors to Jerusalem this Easter season may have noticed some new additions in the Old City: security cameras on the Church of Flagellation, an iron gate at the Franciscans, protective barbed wire on the Armenian Monastery’s roof.
“This is not part of the Franciscan spirituality of welcoming,” noted Brother Francesco Patton, Vatican custodian, or Custos, of the Holy Land.
But Christian churches and worshippers in Jerusalem say they are facing an unprecedented rise in attacks that are upsetting a delicate balance of harmony in a city, revered by the three Abrahamic faiths, that is home to dozens of diverse communities and denominations.
It comes as Israel faces a domestic political crisis and a general rise in Israeli-Palestinian violence, with rhetoric by far-right government ministers fanning the flames of extremist violence.
Some fear the attacks belong to a wider campaign by Israeli extremists and settler groups to make East Jerusalem unwelcoming to Palestinian Christians
