Shocking footage of a French nun being assaulted in broad daylight in Jerusalem’s Old City at the end of April sparked widespread outrage among church figures, amid warnings of a surge in attacks by Israeli settlers and the military targeting Palestinian Christian communities.
In the video, an Israeli Jewish man can be seen pushing the Catholic nun to the ground and kicking her after she fell, causing facial bruising and head injuries. The vicar general of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, Bishop William Shomali, called the violent aggression “extremely serious and despicable”.
The viral, disturbing episode is the latest in a growing pattern of hostility and intimidation affecting clergy, Christian institutions, and Palestinian Christians in occupied East Jerusalem.
It follows weeks of heightened tensions during Easter celebrations, including the 40-day closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre under the pretext of security during the US-Israel war on Iran, alongside checkpoints across the Old City and tighter restrictions on Christian access to holy sites for holiday worship.
Last month, several Christian pilgrims were reportedly beaten and arrested by Israeli forces during Holy Saturday celebrations, an event that draws thousands of Christians to Jerusalem’s Old City each year.
On Palm Sunday, Israeli police barred Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and other Catholic leaders from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, despite Church officials having complied with restrictions, including the cancellation of public Easter services. Following strong international uproar, Israeli authorities reversed the decision permitting a limited mass at the church on Easter Sunday.
“Closing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is official policy,” George Sahhar, a Christian Jerusalemite and advocate for Palestinian rights, told The New Arab . “Don’t tell me it was a few ‘crazy individuals’, that was a government decision.”
Denouncing Israel’s move, the Palestinian Christian advocate highlighted the absurdity of blocking the church’s own custodian from accessing it, pointing to the further erosion of Jerusalem’s Status Quo , which preserves existing control and access to key holy sites under religious custodians rather than state authorities. Rising violence against Christians Since the start of the 1967 occupation of Jerusalem and its illegal annexation in 1980, Israeli authorities have often imposed security restrictions on access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, including periodic closures and limits on worshippers. Palestinians in the West Bank have also faced tighter entry restrictions to Jerusalem’s holy sites, particularly during major religious periods and periods of heightened tension.
Israel also recently drew global outcry in southern Lebanon after images circulated online of Israeli troops damaging and desecrating Christian religious statues in two separate incidents. In one case, an Israeli soldier was filmed smashing a crucifixion statue of Jesus with an axe in the village of Debel. In another, a soldier was photographed smoking while placing a cigarette in the mouth of a Virgin Mary statue in the same Christian village.
Talking to TNA , Setrag Balian, a member of Jerusalem’s Armenian community , described a series of incidents over the years that, he said, have gradually evolved into a “much more dangerous” pattern since Israel’s current far-right coalition government came to power.
“Jerusalem is becoming a city where Christians are afraid to walk with a cross,” the Jerusalemite Armenian activist said.
Another nun had been assaulted and insulted three times before the recent high-profile attack, he said, while priests are regularly spat on by Israeli extremists. Clergy from the Armenian Patriarchate regularly need police and Jewish volunteer escorts to reach the Holy Sepulchre church, he added.
Church representatives and monitoring groups have warned of a worsening climate of anti-Christian harassment and restrictions in both the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem’s Old City, which is home to key Jewish, Christian, and Muslim holy sites.
The Jerusalem-based interreligious Rossing Center recorded 155 incidents of harassment or violence against Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem in 2025, including 61 physical attacks such as spitting, pepper spray, and beatings, 52 cases of damage to church property, 28 episodes of harassment, and 14 cases of vandalism of Christian signs. Researchers said the figures reflect a continuing rise in anti-Christian incidents.
“In a system where Palestinian Christians and Muslims don’t exist, Israeli authorities believe they can act with impunity to push their political agenda, which remains ethnic cleansing and annexation,” Palestinian political analyst Xavier Abu Eid told The New Arab , remarking that the targeting of the Christian community is a consequence of years of impunity for violence more generally against Palestinians.
Stressing that anti-Christian sentiment is not new in Jerusalem and the West Bank, he explained that “some elements” within the religious Zionist community are now targeting Palestinian Christians specifically because of their religious identity, rather than their national identity as Palestinians. Palestinian Christians say attacks on them have become an almost daily occurrence in recent years. Erasing Jerusalem's Palestinian presence “Jerusalem is the cradle of Christianity, and look at how we are being treated,” Sahhar said. “It’s unacceptable, we feel abandoned, this has to stop.” With 34 years of experience working in communications and advocacy, he described the current situation as “the worst” he has ever seen.
Critical of the world’s “very weak” inaction, the Palestinian advocate called on states to immediately intervene to stop Israel’s systemic intimidation and abuse targeting Christians and Muslims, and to protect the freedom of religion.
“We’re not begging for help, we’re demanding our rights,” he insisted. “Jerusalem must be protected until the occupation ends”.
Abu Eid warned that the denial of religious freedom and identity is “extremely” concerning for the future of Christianity. “We consider ourselves the oldest Christian community in the world, but we don’t have the possibility of living our Christianity as our ancestors did.”
Referring to the continued “settler-colonial occupation”, the political scientist said that Israeli law and practice define Jerusalem as the “eternal, undivided capital of Israel”. He added that for years the Jewish state has presented it as “a city open to all” while maintaining a system of supremacy over Palestinians, both Christians and Muslims.
“Israel’s plan is to turn Jerusalem into a ‘Zionist Disneyland’ where Jews can do as they please and we will feel like strangers,” Abu Eid said.
Sharing similar concerns, Sahhar also sounded the alarm. “They want Jerusalem to look exclusively Jewish, and we’re no longer welcome in our own city.”
Balian recalled that last year, he and other Armenians wanted to visit the Jewish community centre to extend Passover greetings, but were discouraged from going over fears of tensions. “Some Jews were afraid for us to come and congratulate them,” the young Armenian said. “It creates a sense of separation and barriers that didn’t exist before.”
He knows many Palestinian Christians studying abroad who do not return, saying those who can leave do so without hesitation, while others are considering it. “It’s very uncomfortable. You feel like you can’t breathe anymore,” Balian said.
Jerusalem is sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In 1948, the city’s Christian population was about 31,000, while today, only around 10,000 Christians remain , which is roughly 1% of the population. The dwindling Christian presence in Jerusalem is declining each year under rising pressures linked to Israeli policies and practices since the start of the occupation, altering the city’s shared religious and historical fabric.
Observers and church leaders say the rise in anti-Christian intolerance has been fuelled by Jewish ultra-nationalism and increasingly inflammatory rhetoric from far-right Israeli politicians, contributing to the normalisation of extremist currents within Israeli society and politics.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir made widely criticised remarks in October 2023 that described spitting on Christians as an "old Jewish custom", not a criminal act.
Such statements were echoed in action days later, as a video appeared of ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting beside a procession of Christian pilgrims near a church in the Old City.
“The people who spat on me are part of the Israeli government, especially the minister for National Security,” Abbot Nikodemus Schnabel, who heads the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, recently told the media.
Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos, an American Orthodox nun who lived in Jerusalem for 10 years and visits the Holy Land every year, has warned about the threat Israeli actions pose to the Palestinian and Christian presence in the city. In a recent interview, she said : “In their religious belief, they’re against Christians, so this is a way of saying we don’t want you here”. Alessandra Bajec is a freelance journalist currently based in Tunis Follow her on Twitter: @AlessandraBajec Edited by Charlie Hoyle