As a Palestinian Christian, the image of an Israeli soldier smashing a Jesus statue in Lebanon reinforces my lived experiences and what I’ve learned about Israeli Jews’ attitudes. But Western outrage at Jewish attacks on Christians must also extend to attacks on Muslims
By John Munayer, Reposted from Haaretz, April 23, 2026
Many of us saw the image of an Israeli soldier smashing a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon. The photograph received extensive attention and caused widespread indignation. As a Palestinian Christian living in Jerusalem, I was not shocked. Indeed, for many Arab Christians in the region the incident is not an anomaly but a pattern.
How does a soldier come to smash the face of Jesus? He comes to it because he has learned from a young age that non-Jewish symbols do not command the same respect, reverence, or moral seriousness as Jewish ones. He has absorbed a worldview in which Jewish power, Jewish presence, and Jewish sacredness are treated as more important than everyone else’s; a worldview in which Arab, Palestinian, Christian, Muslim, or otherwise non-Jewish dignity is seen as secondary, conditional, or disposable.
A recent survey of Jewish attitudes toward Christians found a troubling pattern: the younger the respondents, the more negative their views tend to be, and higher religiosity also correlates with greater intolerance towards Christianity.
The survey, conducted in 2025 by the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, the interreligious peacebuilding organization I work for, showed that overall, 20 percent of Israeli Jews do not think that Israel has to guarantee freedom of religion for its Christian citizens; 27 percent said they are bothered when they encounter a Christian wearing a cross in Israel and over 40 percent do not think that the historical roots of Christianity in Israel mean that the Arab Christians belong in the country.
The center also compiled a report on attacks and harassment against Christians. It documented 155 incidents affecting Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem in 2025 alone; from physical assaults and spitting to vandalism, harassment and the defacement of Christian signs and symbols. The shattered Jesus statue did not reflect an exception. It reflected a pattern.
As a Palestinian Christian living in Jerusalem, I do not feel comfortable wearing a cross in West Jerusalem and when I walk through certain streets in the Old City, I cannot help but see the attempts to get rid of the Christian and Palestinian character of the city. I ask myself, when will Israelis understand that we are not guests or visitors, but part of the indigenous roots of this beautiful, rich and diverse land?
There is a tendency, especially abroad, to see attacks on Christians as exceptional, as if the experience of Christians is better than the daily reality that Palestinians more broadly endure. But they are part of the same story. Palestinian Christians do not stand outside the Palestinian experience. The same structures and logics that marginalize Muslims in this land also shape our lives.
At the same time, it is highly problematic that many in the West seem to care more about us Christians than about our Muslim neighbors. Outrage over the attacks and harassment of Christians are welcome, but where is the same outrage when Muslims are being denied freedom of worship? Where is the anger about the mosques that have been destroyed in Lebanese villages?
The smashing of a Jesus statue is shocking, but it is not the worst thing that contempt or supremacy can produce. It reflects a wider culture in which Palestinian life, dignity and sacredness have been systematically degraded, most catastrophically in Gaza, and also in the West Bank. As a Palestinian Christian, I cannot fully understand the global outrage towards the Jesus statue when I do not see the same outrage towards the systematic killing of thousands in Gaza and hundreds in the West Bank. I ask myself how Jesus would react to people caring more about a statue of him than about human lives.
In many ways this is a test. Not of Christian endurance in the region, but of Israeli-Jewish society’s moral compass and conscience. A society is judged not by how it honors its own holy places, but by how it treats those with less power, not only their symbols, but their lives. The statue can be repaired. The contempt that broke it cannot, unless it is finally confronted.
John Munayer is a Palestinian Christian theologian based in Jerusalem. He works in interreligious peacebuilding and is a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh.
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