Warning follows Jewish man’s arrest over brutal attack in which a nun was pushed and kicked in Jerusalem this week
Christian worshippers mark Palm Sunday in Jerusalem's Old City [File: Ammar Awad/Reuters]
By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and Reuters
Published On 1 May 2026
The head of a Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem has condemned a brutal attack on a nun in the city earlier in the week and warned of growing concerns over the future for Christians living in the Holy Land.
Archbishop Atallah Hanna said on Facebook that “the attack on a nun in the city of Jerusalem comes amid escalating violations against Christian institutions in the city”.
He added that “this reflects increasing concerns about the future of the historic Christian presence in the Holy Land”.
In his post, which was accompanied by a video, he warned that such attacks “are no longer isolated incidents, but part of a recurring pattern that threatens the Christian presence,” calling for international action to stop them.
On Thursday, Israeli police released a video showing what witnesses said was an attack by a Jewish man on a French nun in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Video footage showed the man following the nun, forcibly pushing her to the ground, causing an injury to her head, then briefly walking away before returning to kick her as she lay on the ground, before bystanders intervened.
Israeli police arrest suspect behind assault on Christian nun in Jerusalem
Who profits big from the war on Iran?
According to The Times of Israel, police said they had arrested a Jewish man suspected of assaulting the nun in Jerusalem.
“The suspect, a 36-year-old male, was identified and subsequently arrested by police,” the police said in a statement on Wednesday, adding it viewed with “utmost severity” any violent act “driven by potentially racist motives and directed toward members of the clergy”.
Father Olivier Poquillon, director of Jerusalem’s French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, told the AFP news agency the 48-year-old nun is a researcher at the institution and did not wish to speak publicly.
Rising attacks on Christians
Attacks on Christian communities in occupied East Jerusalem and Israel have risen in recent years, according to the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, which tracks such incidents.
Churches in Jerusalem have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to act decisively to put a stop to them.
On Tuesday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the incident a “shameful act” in a statement on X.
“In a city sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, we remain committed to protecting all communities and ensuring those responsible for violence are held accountable,” the ministry added.
Last month, a viral photograph showing an Israeli soldier smashing a statue of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon with a sledgehammer caused outrage.
The military said an investigation had been opened and that “appropriate measures will be taken against those involved in accordance with the findings”.
Israel later said the soldier had been jailed for 30 days, along with another soldier who had been filming him. Six other soldiers have been summoned for questioning.
Israeli soldiers jailed for destroying Jesus statue in Lebanon
Did you know? When Muslims invaded Egypt in the 8th century, they would kidnap Christian children and raise them as Muslims.
ReplyDeleteBecause of this, parents started tattooing a small cross on their babies’ wrists, so that if they were ever kidnapped, they would never forget their Christian identity.
To this day, every Coptic Christian gets this tattoo at the age of 1, because the kidnappings never stopped.
No Mention of Falastinos.
ReplyDeleteFACTS
The earliest mention of Israel doesn’t come from the Bible.
It comes out of Egypt.
Around 1208 BCE, Pharaoh Merneptah ordered a victory inscription carved after his campaign in Canaan. The monument, known as the Merneptah Stele, lists the peoples he claimed to have defeated.
One of them…Israel.
Not a city.
Not a region.
A people.
The inscription states that Israel was “laid waste, bare of seed.” In the hieroglyphs, Israel is marked with the symbol used for a population group. Not a place. That distinction is deliberate. It shows the Egyptians recognized Israel as a distinct people living in the land.
This wasn’t written by Israelites preserving their own story. It was written by an opposing power. The stele was discovered in 1896 in Thebes by archaeologist Flinders Petrie. It predates Rome, Christianity, and Islam by centuries.
Later records reinforce the same reality. The Tel Dan Stele from the 9th century BCE references the “House of David,” confirming an Israelite dynasty. Assyrian records from the 8th century BCE regularly mention the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as political entities. The Mesha Stele refers to both Israel and (YHWH) Adonai, the God of the Israelites.
Taken together, these sources establish something simple and unavoidable. Israel wasn’t created by modern politics. It wasn’t retrofitted into the land. It was already there, named and recognized more than three thousand years ago.
You can argue borders, governments, and policy all you want.
But denying Jewish peoplehood or presence in the land isn’t up for debate.
Because, you’re dealing with rock-solid proof.
https://x.com/baum_p/status/2050091479482105880?s=20
Determinative
DeleteWhile Asqaluni, Gezer and Yanoam are given the determinative for a city – a throw stick plus three mountains – the hieroglyphs that refer to Israel instead employ the throw stick (the determinative for "foreign") plus a sitting man and woman (the determinative for "people") over three vertical lines (a plural marker):
T14
A1 B1
Z2s
The determinative "people" has been the subject of significant scholarly discussion. As early as 1955, John A. Wilson wrote, of the idea that this determinative means the "'ysrỉꜣr" were a people: "The argument is good, but not conclusive, because of the notorious carelessness of Late-Egyptian scribes and several blunders of writing in this stela".[19] This sentiment was subsequently built upon by other scholars.[20]
According to The Oxford History of the Biblical World, this "foreign people ... sign is typically used by the Egyptians to signify nomadic groups or peoples, without a fixed city-state home, thus implying a seminomadic or rural status for 'Israel' at that time".[21][b] The phrase "wasted, bare of seed" is formulaic, and often used of defeated nations – it implies that the grain-store of the nation in question has been destroyed, which would result in a famine the following year, incapacitating them as a military threat to Egypt.[22]
A portion of line 27, translated as "Israel [foreign people]"
According to James Hoffmeier, "no Egyptologists would ever read the signs of a foreign ethnic entity as indicating a foreign land, but a people group".[23]
In contrast to this apparent Israelite statelessness, the other Canaanite groups fought by Egypt (Asqaluni, Gezer, and Yano'am) are described in the stele as nascent states.[24]
Israel appoints its first-ever Special Envoy to the Christian World! 🇮🇱✝️
ReplyDeleteForeign Minister Gideon Sa’ar named George Deek, an Arab Christian diplomat and former ambassador, to deepen Israel’s ties with Christian communities worldwide.
A great move!
https://x.com/hananyanaftali/status/2049896894675964221?s=46&t=8K6fzabO3g6uaj4KxwSSjg
These are the most important cities in Christianity after Jerusalem:
ReplyDeleteBethlehem
Nazareth
Constantinople
Alexandria
Antioch
What do they all have in common? Every single one of them is occupied by Muslims. Nazareth despite being located in Israel, also has a Muslim majority.
This is all by design. During the initial Islamic conquests, Muhammad said that one day all of those cities, plus Jerusalem and Rome, would be controlled by Muslims, and that Christians there would be humiliated.
Muslims raided, and tried multiple times, to conquer Rome and the Vatican. They controlled Jerusalem for centuries.
Muslims believe it’s a religious duty to rule Jerusalem. That’s what the Palestinian cause is all about.
They believe that if they conquer Jerusalem again, they will fulfill Muhammad’s prophecy of conquering Rome and controlling the most important Christian cities, and finally defeat Christianity.
https://x.com/realmaalouf/status/2050270783159574896?s=46&t=8K6fzabO3g6uaj4KxwSSjg