RAMALLAH, August 15, 2025 (WAFA) – The Israeli occupation authorities are waging a systematic campaign to eradicate Christian presence in the Holy Land by targeting the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, the Higher Presidential Committee of Church Affairs in Palestine said in a press statement.
The Committee has sounded the alarm over an unprecedented assault on the churches of the Holy Land, led by a direct attack on the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem. The Committee warned that these actions are part of a systematic policy aimed at dismantling the authentic Christian presence in Palestine and stripping the land of its historic religious institutions.
In a letter addressed to church hierarchs worldwide, PLO Executive Committee member and Head of the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, Ramzi Khouri, stated that Israeli occupation authorities have frozen the bank accounts of the Patriarchate and imposed crippling, unjust taxes on its properties.
“Such measures severely threaten the Church’s ability to provide spiritual, humanitarian, and community services, constituting a flagrant breach of the historic Status Quo and a gross violation of international law and binding agreements,” he added.
The Committee added that “the assault extends beyond financial strangulation.” It elaborated: “Lands belonging to the Orthodox Church around the Monastery of Saint Gerasimus (Deir Hijleh) near Jericho have been targeted through aggressive settlement expansion. In the past two years, new illegal settlement outposts have been established in the Jericho area, posing a direct threat to its historic and sacred character and forming part of a broader plan to erase Palestine’s Christian and historical identity.”
“These measures are inseparable from the wider occupation strategy to alter the identity of Jerusalem, erase its religious and cultural character, and ultimately eliminate the Palestinian presence in the city,” the Committee stressed.
It slammed any possible silence from the international community and global churches as “a green light for the continuation and escalation of these oppressive actions.”
The Committee further highlighted that “these policies coincide with ongoing war, genocide, and starvation in the Gaza Strip – now in its 670th day – as well as ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Most recently, the extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the construction of thousands of settlement units under the colonial “E1” plan east of Jerusalem, a move that would shatter any prospect of a continuous and unified Palestinian state.”
The letter concluded with an urgent appeal to churches and Christian institutions worldwide to “take immediate political, legal, and media action to halt these violations and defend the Church’s freedom to carry out its spiritual and humanitarian mission.”
“Protecting the churches of Palestine is a collective responsibility and a historic trust,” the Committee affirmed.
K.F.
