During the Palestine war of 1948-49, Zionist forces desecrated, profaned, destroyed and looted Christian Holy Places. The following is a list of churches, convents, and institutions damaged by Zionists:

• The Hospice “Notre Dame de France,” a large part of which was destroyed as a result of the Jewish occupation
• The Convent of Reparatrice Sisters was set on fire and almost completely destroyed. It was occupied on May 15, 1948. Israelis fortified and used it as a main base to attack the Holy City
• The tower and church of the Monastery of the Benedictine Fathers were damaged as a result of having been occupied
• The Seminary of St. Anne was hit by two mortar bombs: the first on May 17, 1948, the second on May 19, 1948, destroying walls and wounding the refugees sheltered therein
• The church of St. Constantine and Helena, which is contiguous to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was damaged on May 17, 1948, by a bomb, the fragments of which damaged also the dome of the Holy Sepulchre
• The American Orthodox Patriarchate was hit by about one hundred mortar bombs thrown by Zionists from the Monastery of the Benedictine Fathers on Mount Sion, and the bombs damaged St. Jacob’s Convent, the Archangels Convent and their two churches, their two Elementary and Seminary schools and their library. Eight persons among the refugees were killed and 120 wounded
• The entrance of the church of St. Mark belonging to the Syrian Orthodox, received on May 17, 1948 a mortar shell killing the monk Peter Saymy, secretary to the Bishop and wounding two other persons
• The Convent of St. George of the Greek Orthodox which is contiguous to the Greek Catholic Cathedral received on May 18, 1948 a mortar shell breaking the tiles and damaging the windows of the cathedral. It was occupied by the Zionists four days earlier
• The Convent of St. John of the Greek Orthodox, contiguous to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, received on its roof a mortar shell on May 23, 1948, and St. Abraham convent nearby was hit as well as St. Spiridon Convent. The Convent of St. John was occupied on May 18, 1948
• The Convent of the Archangel belonging to the Coptic Patriarchate, situated over the grotto of the Holy Cross, forming part of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, received on May 23, 1948 a mortar shell damaging its roof
• The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate was hit by mortar shells on May 23 and 24, 1948, wounding many refugees sheltered therein
• The big Franciscan convent (St. Saviour) situated near the Holy Sepulchre received mortar shells on May 19, 23, 24, and 28, 1948, causing damage to the orphanage, general secretariat, and hitting nearby houses, killing and wounding children sheltered therein
• The Latin Patriarchate received on May 23, 26, 27, and 28, 1948, mortar shells causing damage to the Patriarchal Palace, especially to the Cathedral
• The Greek Catholic Patriarchate was hit by mortar bombs on May 16 and 29, 1948, damaging the building and wounding some persons

Source: Encyclopedia of the Palestine problema by Issa Nakhleh.

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.

The villages of Yalu, Beit Nuba and Emmaus were known from the time of Jesus. The Church of Emmaus was reconstructed in 1902 by the Franciscan Fathers on Crusader Foundations. Emmaus has also a big Catholic Convent and was a great tourist attraction. These three Biblical villages were occupied by the Israeli army on June 9, 1967. All homes and buildings in the three villages, together with the Catholic Church, Convent and two Muslim Mosques were razed to the ground. Twenty two men, women and children were killed in the blasting operations. Over 5,000 people were made homeless.

The well known Jewish writer Amos Kenan was a soldier in the Jewish army unit which demolished these three villages. In an interview with the Jewish magazine Haolem Hazeh, he gave the following account:

The unit commander told us that it had been decided to blow up three villages in our sector; they were Beit-Nuba, Emmaus and Yalu. This was explained by strategic, tactical and security considerations. At noon the first bulldozer arrived and pulled down the first house at the edge of the village. Within 10 minutes the house was turned to rubble. The olive trees and cypresses were all uprooted. After the destruction of three houses the first refugee column arrived from the direction of Ramallah. We told them to go to Beit Sura. They told us that they were driven out everywhere, forbidden to enter any village, that they were wandering like this for four days, without food, without water, some dying on the road. They asked to return to the village, and said we’d better kill them. Some had a goat, a lamb, a donkey or a camel. A father ground wheat by hand to feed his four children. On the horizon we could see the next group arriving. The children cried. Some of our soldiers started crying too. We went to fetch some water. We stopped a car with a major, two captains and a woman. We took a jerrican of water and distributed it to the refugees. We also handed out cigarettes and candy. More soldiers burst out crying. We asked the officers why are these refugees sent from one place to another and driven out of everywhere. They told us this was good for them. Let them go. Moreover, said the officers, why do we care about the Arabs anyway. We drove them out. They go on wandering in the south like lost cattle. The weak die. In the evening we found out that we had been deceived, for in Beit-Sura too, bulldozers commenced destruction and they were forbidden to enter. We found out that not only in our sector was the border straightened out for security reasons but in all sectors. Our unit was outraged. At night we were ordered to guard the bulldozers, but the unit was so outraged that no soldier was willing to carry out such duties. None of us understood how Jews could behave like this. The chickens and doves were buried in the rubble. The fields were turned into wasteland in front of our eyes. The children who went on crying on the road will be Fedayeen in 19 years, in the next round. Thus have we lost on that day the victory.

Source: Encyclopedia of the Palestine problema by Issa Nakhleh.

These crimes committed by the Zionists reflected the deep-felt hatred of everything Christian embedded in the Zionist ideology. Testimony shows that this feeling went so deep that the Zionist authorities removed the international “+” sign from mathematics textbooks because of the resemblance of the plus sign to the Christian Cross.

Palestinian Christians cannot understand Christians in other lands who support Zionism despite this insane hatred of the Christian faith. American Jewish organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai Brith, raise a tremendous clamor whenever there is a desecration of Jewish Synagogues or a perceived slur against Judaism. But their deafening silence at similar Zionist crimes against Christianity in Israel sorrowfully indicates that the ADL is more self-righteous than righteous and more hypocritical than principled. Even more shameful is the attitude of the Christian televangelists who mislead their followers into supporting the persecution of their fellow Christians.

Chairman of Israel Human Rights League, Israel Shahak, has written about the deep-rooted Zionist hatred of Christianity and the manifestations of that hatred in Israel:

(Dishonoring) Christian religious symbols is an old religious duty in Judaism. Spitting on the cross, and especially on the Crucifix, and spitting when a Jew passes a church, have been obligatory from around AD 200 for pious Jews. In the past, when the danger of anti-Semitic hostility was a real one, the pious Jews were commanded by their rabbis either to spit so that the reason for doing so would be unknown, or to spit onto their chests, not actually on the cross or openly before the church. The increasing strength of the Jewish state has caused these customs to become more open again but there should be no mistake: The spitting on the cross for converts from Christianity to Judaism, organized in Kibbutz Sa’ad and financed by the Israeli government is an act of traditional Jewish piety. It does not cease to be barbaric, horrifying and wicked because of this! On the contrary, it is worse because it is so traditional, and much more dangerous as well, just as the renewed anti-Semitism of the Nazis was dangerous, because in part, it played on the traditional anti-Semitic past.

This barbarous attitude of contempt and hate for Christian symbols has grown in Israel. In the 1950s Israel issued a series of stamps representing pictures of Israeli cities. In the picture of Nazareth, there was a church and on its top a cross– almost invisible, perhaps the size of a millimeter. Nevertheless, the religious parties, supported by many on the Zionists “left” made a scandal and the stamps were quickly withdrawn and replaced by an almost identical series from which the microscopic cross was withdrawn.

Then there was the long-drawn-out battle about Christian influence in elementary arithmetic. Pious Jews object to the international plus sign for it is a cross, and it may in their opinion, influence little children to convert to Christianity. Another “explanation” holds: it would then be difficult to “educate” them to spit on the cross, if they become used to it in their arithmetic exercises. Until the early 1970s two different sets of arithmetic books were used in Israel. One for the secular schools, employing an inverted “T” sign. In the early ‘70s the religious fanatics “converted” the (Labor) Party to the great danger of the cross in arithmetic, and from that time, in all Hebrew elementary schools (and now many high schools as well) the international plus sign has been forbidden.

Similar development is visible in other areas of education. Teaching the New Testament was always forbidden, but in the old times conscientious teachers of history used to circumvent the prohibition, by (organizing) seminars or sending the students to libraries (not the school libraries, of course). About 10 years ago there was a wave of denouncing such teachers. One in Jerusalem was almost sacked, for advising her history pupils, who were studying the history of Jews in Palestine around 30-40 AD, that it would be a good thing if they would read a few chapters of the New Testament as a historical aid. She retained her post only after humbly promising not to do this again.

However, in recent years, anti-Christian feelings are literally exploding in Israel (and among the Israel-worshipping Jews in Diaspora too) together with the increase of the Jewish fanaticism in all other areas.

The worst enemies of the truth here, as in many other aspects of the Israel reality, are the socialists, “liberals”, “radicals”, etc. in the USA. Imagine the reaction of the US liberals, and of such papers as The Nation and New York Review of Books, not to speak of the New York Times if any state whatsoever, the government financed spitting on a Star of David? But when here in Israel, the government finances the spitting on a cross, they are and will continue to be, quite silent. More than this, they help to finance it. United States taxpayers, who are of course mostly Christians, are financing at least half the Israeli budget, one way or another, and there for spitting on the crosses too.

Source: Encyclopedia of the Palestine problema by Issa Nakhleh.