Palestine church attacks tear at Israel's relations with Christians

The National

a day ago

Just back from Gaza, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa's voice faltered as he recounted the horror of seeing a mutilated child in the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital.
It was one thing to see the pictures, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said on his return to the city. 'It's different to see the child with the father there, the only remaining family, with his only remaining child out of six. It is difficult to bear. He lost his sight, everything.'
Cardinal Pizzaballa was in Gaza after Israeli fire killed three Christians last week in the only Catholic church in the strip. The cardinal reiterated his position that he is not sure he believes the Israeli army's assessment that the strike was a mistake. Pope Leo XIV also condemned the attack.
The Patriarch stressed his solidarity with all in the strip and condemned the 'morally unacceptable' war, in particular the growing hunger that he saw on his brief visit. 'It is time to end this nonsense, end the war and put the common good of people as the top priority,' he said.
Cardinal Pizzaballa, who was tipped as a papal candidate at the last conclave and is one of the most influential faith leaders in Jerusalem, was not the only senior church leader to raise serious concerns about Christians in the Holy Land this week.
On Saturday, US Ambassador and evangelical Christian Zionist Mike Huckabee slammed an arson attack by Israeli settlers on a church in the occupied West Bank village of Taybeh as an 'act of terror'.
'What has happened here is an absolute travesty and it's my desire to do everything possible to let the people of this peaceful village know that we will certainly insist that those who carry out acts of terror and violence in Taybeh – or anywhere – be found and be prosecuted,' Mr Huckabee said.
His comments came amid rising Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, which has seen daily incidents of vandalism, land and property theft, assaults and even killings, including of US-Palestinians.
Mr Huckabee's angry words were a remarkable condemnation from someone who The Jerusalem Post last year described as the second most important Christian Zionist around. Today, Mr Huckabee has the ear of the most powerful man on the planet, US President Donald Trump
Millions of Christian Zionists live in the US and vote for Mr Trump. Their pro-Israel stance is a critical foundation of the US's seemingly open-ended support of the country. They raise vast sums of money for Zionist causes and send over streams of Christians on solidarity visits, often to provide labour on Israeli farms and vineyards.
The US also just got its first pope, Leo XIV, now the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion people. The pontiff's most senior representative in the Holy Land, Cardinal Pizzaballa, has lived in Jerusalem for more than three decades and speaks fluent Hebrew.
Israel has acknowledged some of these recent incidents. On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's office released a statement, not explicitly in his name, that said: 'Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza's Holy Family Church.' No such statement was issued in Hebrew for the domestic press.
The statement came shortly after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr Trump had phoned Mr Netanyahu about the strike and that 'it was not a positive reaction'.
The church attack in Taybeh garnered a very different response from authorities and people close to Mr Netanyahu. Two days after Mr Huckabee demanded action, Israel's police said 'reports' of such an attack were 'factually incorrect, lack any evidentiary basis, and risk misleading the public'.
This came after diplomats from more than 20 countries, senior church leaders and dozens of journalists made an official visit to witness the site, during which video evidence and testimony from several sources were presented.
Caroline Glick, Mr Netanyahu's international affairs adviser, went further. In a post on X, quoting a report from a sanctioned settler who she described as a journalist, Ms Glick wrote that the story was 'a despicable and false blood libel' and blamed the fire on local Christians who she accused of setting fire to their own lands to stop 'Jewish grazing' from a nearby settlement.
The flare up came just hours after Mr Huckabee announced the resolution of a bitter controversy over evangelicals not being given Israeli visas. On Wednesday, Mr Huckabee sent an angry letter to Israel's interior minister, which was subsequently leaked, that accused Israel's visa authorities of 'arbitrarily' complicating the process.
'It would be very unfortunate that our Embassy would have to publicly announce throughout the US that the State of Israel is no longer welcoming Christian organisations and their representatives and is instead engaging in harassment and negative treatment towards organisations with long-standing relationships and positive involvement towards Zionism and friendship to the Jewish people and the State of Israel,' Mr Huckabee said.
'We would further be obligated to warn Christians in America that their generous contributions to organisations to promote goodwill in Israel are being met with hostility and that tourists should reconsider travel until this situation is resolved with clarity,' he added.
Mr Huckabee said in a post on X on Monday that the issue had been resolved after a meeting with the minister of interior enabled by Mr Netanyahu.