Israeli settlers illegally occupy Christian village near Bethlehem, 
force residents out at gunpoint 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. 
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I know why they did it, and it made a lot more sense in the past, but imo it's time to move on. No one is going
to be making hereditary fiefdoms nowadays and if there's still some remote 
possibility just require that the churches are actually 
owned 
by the Vatican or something.
at least when it comes to the orthodox, I think
this is just more of a fargroup thing than an actual difference 
in attitude. Most people have barely even heard 
of the orthodox, so gay rights 
activists aren't going 
to be freaking out about them. I'm sure the story 
is different 
in Greece/Serbia/etc. Woke prot churches are flying 
rainbow 
flags 
so there's no reason to oppose 
them, and the ones that do stick 
to their guns get shit on all the time, like the LCMS
IIRC the orthodox
do require celibacy if you want to be anything 
above a priest, so if the catholics went that route I don't see the cardinals and bishops being too salty about it.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Actually yeah you're right, Catholics take the brunt because it's a historically Protestant country so everyone's parents hated Catholics already before gay rights was a thing and it just passed down. Probably also because the Orthodox lack a cohesive hierarchy to present a political threat while the USCCB openly advocates for people to vote in defense of marriage etc.
I think picking monks to be bishops is a small t-tradition rather than a matter of ecclesiastical law but I'm not curious enough to double check, another good point on your part regardless.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context