Israel’s callous disregard for Palestinian freedom to worship grows even more brazen than usual this Easter, adding to an already long list of human rights abuses. It’s business as usual under occupation.
“Hosanna” means “save us,” but Israeli soldiers descended on Palm Sunday worshipers anyway, grabbing Palestinian flags out of their hands in the middle of their holy procession.
The heads of Jerusalem’s Christian churches decided to close the Church of the Holy Sepulchre until further notice, in a protest against what they say is Israel’s “systematic campaign against the churches and the Christian community in the Holy Land”
Haaretz reports that a senior Israeli rabbi ruled against an image of an Israeli poet on a banknote because the poet’s wife was Christian. The rabbi said: “in our tradition, there are grave things written about whoever [lives his life] with a Christian. Tied to him like a dog. [People like that are] called apostates.” The ruling impacts ultra-Orthodox Jews living throughout Israel…
In open letter, Christian leaders representing dozens of national orgs urge Congress to support free speech, oppose anti-BDS legislation.
Another vandalism incident at a church in Israel. Christians are demanding convictions, but Netanyahu’s government continues to turn a blind eye.
The recent conviction of an Israeli settler for an arson attack on the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes is a reminder that Jewish extremism toward Christians and their holy sites is a problem as old as the state of Israel itself.
As with every year, Israel issued a number of permits for West Bank and Gaza Christians to enter Jerusalem during Easter. But then it imposed a week-long closure on the occupied territories for the Jewish Passover holiday, which coincided with Easter celebrations, thus deeming all permits void for this week.
![Israel not paying to de-mine Christian holy site [VIDEO]](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Qasr-al-Yahud-728x410.jpg "Israel not paying to de-mine Christian holy site [VIDEO]")
Half a million tourists annually walk past two fenced-in minefields to visit Qasr al-Yahud,- the site where Jesus was believed to have been baptised in the River Jordan. Many consider it the third holiest site in Christianity. Israel peppered it with mines in 1967. It continues to refuse to pay to remove them…
Schools across the U.S. have altered policies and even landscapes in an attempt to make a repeat of last spring’s Palestine protests impossible. The result is a far-reaching war on free expression and the increased militarization of higher education.