Historian William Dalrymple writes: "The Israelis are eliminating one of the last Christian Palestinians strongholds in the West Bank and the place I chose to stay when I was researching the Palestinian Christians in From the Holy Mountain. It is a place with an incredibly ancient history, a cradle of Christianity, and its people have some of the closest DNA matches to the people of the time of Christ. Why is no one reporting this?"
On X (Twitter ) he writes: "Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich officially announces building a new settlement in Jabal al-Makhrur in the town of Beit Jala near Bethlehem. The settlers and the army have begun expelling the citizens and declaring it a closed military zone. Many of its residents are holding a sit-in in a tent and refuse to leave despite all the attacks. This is one of the last Christian Palestinian villages."
And this is also in the same week that Christian prayer services have been banned on Mount Tabor:
Within the last year attacks on Israeli Christians have also increased:
The findings are part of a report by the Jerusalem-based Rossing Center, called Attacks on Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem, which examined the increase in hostilities towards Churches and their members in 2023.
This included "a worrying increase in severe property and physical assaults" affecting communities in Jerusalem's Old City.
Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Hana Bendcowsky from the Rossing Center divided up the problems faced by Christians in the region into 'smash' and 'squeeze', terms used by human rights observers.
"The 'smash' describes incidents such as the attack on the Church of the Flagellation, where a statue was smashed with a hammer", she explained.
These violent attacks are mostly carried out by marginalised young ultra-Orthodox Jewish men with hardline-nationalist views, she added, stressing however that "even among the ultra-Orthodox such behaviour is not normative, the majority would not go into a church and smash a statue of Jesus."
"And the 'squeeze' pushes members of the community away, it is incidents like priests being spat at or a nun being told to take off her cross when she goes to the hospital.
Figured I'd provide a counterweight to @911roofer. I support neither side.
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just become Catholic anyway
there are plenty of chudthlics out there and some of them are even actual faithful instead of internet LARPers. V2 didn't introduce any actual heterodoxy, just poor decisions and a misstep in presentation that led to individual heterodoxies through poor formation of priest and laity both. It happens. We don't even have an antipope, so things aren't that bad yet. You have to take a longer view when considering the world's oldest institution and its purpose as a means to the end of eternity with God.
You can still go to a Latin Mass depending on your area, though prefer parish churches and avoid the SSPX (even if not technically schismatic their community is schizophrenic and constantly toeing the line). FSSP or Institute of Christ the King are fine, FSSP people are a little strange and Institute priests are fops, but they're in solid communion and are a valid option if there are no parish TLMs nearby. (Do note that parishes sometimes aren't allowed to advertise their TLMs so you might have to do a bit of digging)
And if there's no TLM nearby, the Novus Ordo isn't an invalid Mass. The songs may suck, there may be female altar servers or extraordinary ministers or stringed instruments used, but it still imparts graces, you can still receive Communion, and as long as you pay attention to which priest you attend or are in a good diocese, the sermons will be edifying and the community will have people eager to grow in the Lord.
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yeah but have you considered that I could become a bvsed and rvdpvlled orthodvx larper instead?
it's been a while since I was spending a lot of thought about this, but things like the filioque and pope francis constantly making nearly heretical statements and then walking them back after people freak out has soured me on Catholicism. Obviously pr*ts are wrong, which leaves me with the Orthodox. But they have their own issues
maybe the copts or byzantine catholics are the right choice or maybe the only true church is some tiny sect with 17 people deep in the mountains of afghanistan
there are too many choices man why is this so hard
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no way
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