The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine has issued a stark warning over what it describes as an unprecedented assault on the Christian presence in the Holy Land, beginning with a direct attack on the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
In a statement released on August 19, the Committee said the measures form part of “a systematic policy aimed at dismantling the authentic Christian presence in Palestine and stripping the land of its historic religious institutions.”
“Member of the PLO Executive Committee and Head of the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, Dr. Ramzi Khouri, stated in a letter to churches worldwide 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,” the statement read.
The Committee warned that the assault extends far beyond financial suffocation. Lands belonging to the Orthodox Church around the Monastery of Saint Gerasimus (Deir Hijleh) near Jericho have come under direct threat from aggressive settlement expansion. Over the past two years, 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 further warned that silence from the international community and global churches “will be seen as a green light for the continuation and escalation of these oppressive actions.”
The statement also linked the measures against the Church to the broader humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territories, noting that they come amid ongoing war, genocide, and starvation in the Gaza Strip—now in its 670th day—as well as continued ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Most recently, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the construction of thousands of settlement units under the controversial “E1” plan east of Jerusalem, a move widely seen as fatal to any future 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.”
Source: hcc.ps
