Reported incidents included Israeli parents spitting and directing insults at Christians in front of their children, and encouraging them to do the same.
ed note–not just entire books, but indeed entire LIBRARIES of commentary could accompany this, but in the interests of not over-burdening the already over-burdened Gentile attention span, we’ll keep it ‘short & sweet’ as the saying goes by quoting Israel Shamir, the Israeli Jew who converted to Orthodox Christianity–
‘I still remember old Jews spitting while passing by a church, and cursing the dead while passing by a Christian cemetery… Last year in Jerusalem, a Jew decided to refresh the tradition by spitting at the Holy Cross carried in the procession along the city…Even today, Jews in Israel refer to Jesus by the demeaning word Yeshu (instead of Yeshua), meaning ‘Perish his name’. These are the endearing feelings that the friends of Christian Zionists maintain towards Christ…’
The first of April until the end of June 2026 saw 83 Israeli attacks on Christians in Israel or Israeli-occupied territories in 76 incidents, most of them in Jerusalem.
The report was issued by the Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC) and its Hotline for Documenting Harassment against Christians in Israel, a nongovernmental center specializing in documenting attacks related to freedom of worship.
According to the report, 68 incidents took place inside Jerusalem, a city also revered by Christians. Two incidents were recorded in Haifa and the Galilee in northern Israel, one in the Sea of Galilee area, one in the West Bank, one in Beit Shemesh west of Jerusalem, and two in Mevaseret Zion west of Jerusalem.
Of the 68 incidents recorded in Jerusalem, 46 took place in the Old City, 13 in West Jerusalem and nine on Mount Zion, a historic hill southwest of the Old City, the report said.
‘As in previous reports, the high number of spitting incidents remains particularly striking. During this quarter, 47 incidents involved spitting, accounting for 56% of all recorded forms of harassment,” the RFDC said.
‘In recent years, these acts have increasingly taken place openly, in broad daylight, and at times in a deliberately demonstrative manner. In several cases, perpetrators even explained to Hotline volunteers—and on camera—why they believed such behavior was justified,’ it added.
The center said that reported incidents included Israeli parents spitting and directing insults at Christians in front of their children, and encouraging them to do the same.
As in previous years, the report noted a sharp increase in incidents during Jerusalem Day and the Flag March (28 Iyar on the Hebrew calendar), an annual Israeli event marking the occupation of East Jerusalem.
‘While some incidents involved individuals acting alone, moving in groups appeared to encourage spitting and similar acts,” the report says.
The report said harassment and attacks are increasingly taking place openly in public spaces, with little hesitation from perpetrators. It cited a violent assault on a nun on Mount Zion and verbal abuse directed at a monk in a store.
The center says on its website that the reality in the Christian Quarter and the Old City of Jerusalem has long been sensitive and full of challenges and complexities, but that the situation changed radically for the worse in early 2023 with a rise in harassment.
In April, Israeli police prevented Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in East Jerusalem during Christian holidays, and imposed restrictions on Christians taking part in Easter celebrations at the church.
In recent years, Jewish religious terrorists have been involved in spitting incidents targeting churches and Christian clergy in Jerusalem, along with attacks on holy sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank and the targeting of churches in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war that started in October 2023.
Churches around the world have also criticized Israel’s recent wars on Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, warning of their humanitarian and religious consequences.