June 21, 2023
"Why Do (Some) Jews Spit on Gentiles?" That was the provocative title of a recent conference in Jerusalem aimed at understanding the increasing acts of violence against non-Jews in the Holy City.
But the event – which was organized by the Center for the Study of Relations Between Jews, Christians and Muslims at the Open University of Israel – almost didn't take place after a key aide of Jerusalem's mayor forced the Tower of David Museum to cancel it. Originally scheduled for June 15, the conference was held next day at the Armenian seminary. But only with a reduced number of people were allowed to participate.
The man who forced the cancellation was Arieh King, one of the city's seven vice-mayors who is known for his hostility to the Christian presence in Jerusalem.
In the eye of the storm was Yisca Harani, a Jewish academic and an energetic woman, whose deeply pious father was also a renowned intellectual and one of the founding forces behind the interfaith meeting in Jerusalem.
Harani knows Christians well; she rubs shoulders with monastic communities in the Holy City and often shares their daily lives. As a researcher, she has also become a witness to the physical, psychological and verbal violence to which those recognized as Christians are subjected.
"I became an activist against my will," she explained.
Recording the incidents
The conference on the rise of violence was an opportunity to encourage people to officially note these incidents. Victims, for example, don't often lodge a complaint after being spat at, let alone when their stay in Israel depends on the goodwill of the authorities.
But Harani said that at least one attack, perhaps even more, takes place every day in Jerusalem.
"I think Arieh King found himself in a bad position after targeting evangelicals," said one of the conference's organizers.
Indeed. King led a small gang of teenagers to Jerusalem's Western Wall on May 30 to protest against a group of Zionist evangelical Christians.
"Go home, missionaries," they shouted at the demonstrators.
According to the same source in the organization, King used the conference as a pretext to fuel his argument about antisemitism and the defense of Jewish identity, which would be threatened even from within.
Ancient fears
The historical origins of the fear of Christians, which encourages these hate reflexes, are fueled by violence and anti-Semitism. But they are also encouraged by the resilience of the Jewish people in their perpetual status as a minority in history. It's a status that the State of Israel has changed.
"Today, the Jewish people must adapt to their role as the majority," insisted Karma Ben-Yohanan, professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She said "the circle of fear" must be broken.
But various observers say these attacks on Christians, which are aimed at gradually erasing their presence and silencing their representatives, are the work of a radical minority. They also say they are immoral and illegal under Jewish religious law.
"Solutions must be found at the source, in education, in the atmosphere in which children grow up," said Alon Goshen-Gottstein, a rabbi who is active in interfaith dialogue.
Political context
Yet Israel's national political climate does not seem conducive to this.
"Violence is on the rise partly because of our new far-right government. It encourages such acts, even indirectly," worried Yossi Havilio, another vice-mayor of Jerusalem, centrist. Havilio, who is a centrist, attended the conference in an act of solidarity.
The phenomenon seems to be increasing. A man was arrested on June 15 after throwing a rock that shattered a stained-glass window in Jerusalem's Cenacle on Mount Zion. And Jewish activists have used magic markers to cross off the names of Christian sites that are indicated on an information board at the entrance to the Old City. Unfortunately, the acts are not limited to Jerusalem.
The Discalced Carmelites at the Stella Maris Monastery at the foot of Mount Carmel in Haifa have been facing the intrusion of ultra-Orthodox Jews the past two weeks who have come ostensibly to pray in the church's grotto known as the Prophet Elijah's cave. Hundreds of people gathered in front of the church on June 18 to show their support for the Catholic friars.