Christian harassment cases rise in Israel as advocates urge victims to report incidents

JERUSALEM (OSV News) — There has been a sharp rise in reported harassment against Christians in Israel, according to new data presented June 4 by the Religious Freedom Data Center.

Founder Yisca Harani said more than 88 incidents have already been documented this year, including 63 in the second quarter alone, putting 2026 on pace to exceed last year’s total of 181 cases.

“We have surpassed all our numbers, and we haven’t reached the end of June yet,” she said.

Most of the incidents, which include spitting and verbal insults, vandalism and desecration of graves, tombstones, statues and crosses, and defacement of signs and graffiti, have taken place in Jerusalem’s Old City, on Mount Zion and near the Armenian Patriarchate — located on one of the routes to the Jewish Quarter, said Harani, a Jewish-Israeli Christian scholar.

However, there have also been cases of harassment, vandalism and arson at Christian holy sites in northern Israel, she said.

Though Israeli authorities maintain these are “isolated incidents” and “pranks” carried out by a small minority of mainly underaged youth, Christian religious report that it is “an everyday occurrence,” said Harani, criticizing what she termed a reluctance by authorities to treat the issue as a systemic problem.

Ori Narov, director of the legal department of the Israel Religious Action Center, said the police tend to open only a small number of investigations. Of the 25 complaints IRAC filed between 2012 and 2021, 19 were closed claiming “suspect not found,” “no offense committed” or that the case is “unsuitable for investigation,” he said.

Nevertheless, he emphasized to the Christian leaders, including Catholic clergy and religious sisters and brothers, present at the conference the importance of persistence in filing complaints, documenting incidents and demanding full legal accountability.

“I have no doubt again that the road is long … but as we said, we are not afraid of a long road, and we will also reach a better future,” he said.

Father Stanislaw Kolakowski, speaking for the Sisters of St. Elizabeth from the New Polish House pilgrim hostel located in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community just outside of the Old City, said the incidents come in waves. Sometimes neighbors offer friendly greetings, but the Roman Catholic sisters have also experienced vandalism of their property — mostly by youth — who have toppled a stone cross, smashed a car windshield, trespassed, and thrown eggs, garbage and stones onto the property.

He said the Religious Freedom Data Center’s hotline has served as something of “great value” as a resource for them in a crisis situation, as it guides them in “what to do, how to react, to whom to report a given incident and how to do it.”

Harani described the mission of the center’s hotline as systematically documenting incidents, mapping their scope, and presenting evidence to authorities to reduce and ultimately eliminate the phenomenon. Over its three years of operation, she said, the initiative has seen both progress and setbacks.

The limited cooperation from state authorities and their tendency to downplay the severity of the phenomenon presents a significant challenge, Harani said, as does the underreporting of incidents within Christian communities themselves. Harani noted that many victims choose not to report incidents or engage with the center’s hotline, limiting the organization’s ability to construct a full and accurate picture of events.

While representatives from Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Justice Ministry and police were present at the conference, they were not authorized to make public comments.

Among the “bright spots,” Harani highlighted the growing involvement of Israeli academia.

Universities such as the Hebrew University, the Open University, and the University of Haifa have supported research and hosted conferences despite initial resistance, Harani said. She also emphasized the role of civil society, noting that hundreds of volunteers have joined the effort, forming what she said was the largest volunteer-based initiative of its kind in Israel. These volunteers assist with protective presence, documentation, victim accompaniment and field reporting, she said.

“Hundreds of Israelis, worried and hurt by the harassments, chose not to remain in a place of despair or anger alone. They exchanged concern for action, they exchanged pain for volunteerism,” Harani emphasized. “Every month, new people join the pool of volunteers. We are ready to respond to calls to accompany, document, assist and be present in the field when necessary.”

A violent attack on a French religious sister who is a researcher at the French Biblical and Archaeological School near the Cenacle and King David’s Tomb in Jerusalem on April 28 made international headlines, as the assault was recorded on CCTV.

The suspect in the attack has been in custody since and is expected to go on trial for assault motivated by hostility towards a religious group.

Just days before the June 4 presentation of the report, a priest from the Latin Patriarchate reported being spat at and verbally insulted by three Jewish religious young men who also made rude gestures as he was leaving a restaurant near Damascus Gate. He had been having lunch with Israeli friends, including peace activists, he said in a released statement.

The harassment continued for several minutes, he said, and his companions came outside the restaurant and confronted the youths. The priest’s friends filed a police complaint, despite long delays in the process and repeated attempts to discourage them from filing, he said.

While acknowledging that publishing documentation of Christian harassment carries risks– including potential misuse for anti-Semitic propaganda abroad — Harani insisted that transparency and data publication remain essential.

“We know that what we advertise, especially the videos, becomes virulent, anti-Semitic propaganda, with consequences,” she said. “It won’t stop me from publishing the statistics, but it will really stop me from (sensationalizing it).”

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