During the June war of 1967, Israeli forces shelled and damaged many churches in the old city of Jerusalem and the church of Nativity in Bethlehem. Israeli forces opened the church of the Holy Sepulchre to Jews who poured into the holiest place in Christendom indecently dressed, behaving disrespectfully, joking, singing and pouring pharisaic hate and insults against Christianity and against Jesus Christ inside the Holy Sepulchre and next to the tomb of Jesus Christ.

Nancy Nolan of Grosse Isle, Michigan, wife of Dr. Abu Haydar of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, in an open letter to the Christians of the Western world, described as an eye witness what she saw in Jerusalem during and after its occupation in 1967 by Israel:

While the Israeli authorities proclaim to the world that all religions will be respected and protected, and post notices identifying the Holy Places, Israeli soldiers and youths are throwing stink bombs in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Muslim call to prayer, formerly heard from every minaret five times daily, is no longer heard in Jerusalem, third most sacred city to the hundreds of millions of Muslims all over the world.

The Church of St. Anne, whose crypt marks the birthplace of Virgin Mary, has been severely damaged and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem also was damaged. The wanton killing of the Warden of the Garden Tomb followed by the shooting into the Tomb itself, in an attempt to kill the warden’s wife, was another instance that we knew first-hand which illustrated the utter disregard shown by the occupation forces toward the Holy Places and the religious sensibilities of the people in Jordan and in the rest of the world. The desecration of the Christian churches, especially the Church of Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, of which we know personally, includes smoking in the churches, littering the churches, taking dogs inside and entering in inappropriate manner of dress. Behavior such as this cannot be construed other than as a direct insult to the whole Christian world.

Reverend James L. Kelso, the former moderator of the United Presbyterian Church, who lived for many years in Palestine, described the damage and desecration of church property in an article published in Christianity Today, July 21, 1967. Reverend Kelso states:

How did Israel respect church property in the fighting a few weeks ago? They shot up the Episcopal Cathedral, just as they had done in 1948. They smashed down the Episcopal school for boys so their tanks could get through to Arab Jerusalem. The Israelis wrecked and looted the YMCA upon which the Arab refugees had bestowed so much loving hand-craft. They wrecked the Big Lutheran Hospital, even though this hospital was used by the United Nations. The hospital had just added a new children’s center and a new research department. The Lutheran center for (disabled) also suffered. At Ramallah, a Christian City near Jerusalem, the Episcopal girl’s school was shot at and some of the girls were killed. So significant was this third Jewish war against the Arabs that one of the finest missionaries of the Near East called it “perhaps the most serious setback that Christendom has had since the fall of Constantinople in 1453…There is as deep horror about all this history in the fact that great numbers of Christians in the United States applaud Israel’s crimes against Arab Christians and Arab Muslims. How can a Christian applaud the murder of a brother Christian by Zionist Jews? The Arab church is as truly the body of Christ as the American Church.

Murder of the Warden of Garden Tomb

Source: Encyclopedia of the Palestine problema by Issa Nakhleh.