A conference raising awareness of attacks against Christians in the Holy Land, planned for last week at Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum, was forced to move venue to another site in the Old City following pressure from senior municipal officials.
The conference was organised in response to a spike in the number of attacks on nuns, priests and pilgrims in the Old City of Jerusalem in recent months.
Over the last six months 19 such attacks – including spitting, swearing, physical violence and vandalism – have been filmed.
The conference, organised by the Centre for the Study of Relations Between Jews, Christians and Muslims at the Open University of Israel, addressed the issue of the history of such attacks and the legal aspects.
Yaska Harani, one of the organisers, said the conference was intended to “build change, not to offend or come out against the ultra-Orthodox society” and to “rid the city of the spitting”.
She said, “As long as the scope of these incidents is not recognised, there will be no legislation or efforts to oppose it.” She added, “This will cost us heavily in the media and also historically.”
Despite having received an invitation, both officials from the municipality and members of the Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to attend the meeting, which was criticised even by Jerusalem’s Chief Rabbi Rabbi Shlomo Amar who has been the most influential Jewish leader explicitly to condemn the anti-Christian violence.
The controversy around the conference is the latest chapter in a long series of incidents that have raised concerns about the future of Christians in the Holy Land. These include the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem being at the centre of a dispute over a sale of property and land in the Old City in Jerusalem. The area, where archaeological excavations have uncovered mosaics from a Byzantine church, is currently being operated by the municipality as a carpark for those visiting the Western Wall.
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