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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Vatican official says Israel fostering intolerance of Christianity |
| 2012-09-08 |
| The Israeli government's failure to respond adequately to Jewish extremist attacks against churches and monasteries is fostering a climate of intolerance towards Christianity in the country, a senior Vatican official in Jerusalem has warned. Police inaction and an educational culture that encourages Jewish children to treat Christians with "contempt" has made life increasingly "intolerable" for many, Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Custodian of the Holy Land, said. Fr Pizzaballa's intervention, unusually outspoken for a senior Catholic churchman, came after pro-settler extremists attacked a Trappist monastery in the town of Latroun. The incident is the latest in a series of acts of arson and vandalism this year targeting places of worship, including Jerusalem's 11th century Monastery of the Cross, built on the site where the tree used to make Christ's Cross is held to have been planted. Slogans reading "Death to Christians" and other offensive graffiti were daubed on its walls. Fr Pizzaballa, the head of the Franciscan Order in the Holy Land, and fellow senior clergymen of other denominations have protested the failure of the police to identify the culprits behind any of the incidents. But the most important issue they say Israel has failed to address is the practice of some ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools that teach children it is a doctrinal obligation to abuse anyone in Holy Orders they encounter in public. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, including children as young as eight, spit at members of the clergy on a daily basis, Fr Pizzaballa said. Such a culture of intolerance has resulted in a "scapegoating" of Christians, leading to them becoming the convenient target of extremists fighting political battles that have nothing to do with the community. |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #11 These are all true. But the claim here is that anti-Christian hatred is being recently encouraged, and specifically serves to scapegoat them by a group angry about issues such as military service and settlements. And that sort of scapegoating is, unfortunately, a dynamic that is not unknown when crises are pending but have not yet arrived. |
| Posted by: lotp 2012-09-08 22:27 |
| #10 It ought also be remembered that the Christians of the Middle East, including in Israel, are pretty traditional in terms of their antisemitism. The Pope has had some problems with his lot on that account. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2012-09-08 21:54 |
| #9 "Ultra-Orthodox Jews, including children as young as eight, spit at members of the clergy on a daily basis, Fr Pizzaballa said." Among the 6.5M or so Jews in Israel, there are about 700k who are Haredim and there may be ten to twenty who engage in this kind of action and possibly even one Rabbi who encourages it (I think my daughter told me she met someone like this once). Obviously the Rabbinate should find out who and put a stop to it. But, as other commentators have pointed out, this should be compared to the much more serious persecutions of Christians by Moslems. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2012-09-08 21:03 |
| #8 Christians in the rest of the middle east (bar Lebanon) are typically incomparably worse off than in Israel James, I would not exempt Christians in Lebanon from the list. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2012-09-08 19:49 |
| #7 I've heard two things, grom. a) Christians in the rest of the middle east (bar Lebanon) are typically incomparably worse off than in Israel and b) Christians are sometimes discriminated against in Israel by Jews. I have not heard anything like Pizzaballa's claims, though--at least not from sources I know to be reliable. |
| Posted by: James 2012-09-08 16:39 |
| #6 2011 tourist figures. Wik sez 54% were Christian. Appears to be a buttload of people ignoring the .... "Intolerance": United States: 633,868 Russia: 491,469 France: 300,566 United Kingdom: 221,095 Germany: 220,692 Ukraine: 137,342 Italy: 151,252 Poland: 95,958 Canada: 76,636 Netherlands: 63,053 Brazil: 56,889 Ppain: 56,204 Nigeria: 45,095 Switzerland: 40,912 Romania: 40,255 India: 38,870 Belgium: 37,039 Austria: 35,166 Australia: 34,203 South Korea: 32,718 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-09-08 13:23 |
| #5 That's your excuse? No. My reason is that anybody who claims that Christians are discriminated against in Israel is a lying piece of shit! g(r) - that was beneath you. Christians are Israel's greatest friend and ally. We are aware of this. And, in consequence, we tolerate behavior from representatives of various Christian churches which would not be tolerated in any other place in the World. Like this lying piece of garbage Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2012-09-08 13:01 |
| #4 It's the Telegraph. I'm dubious. From the Galilee to Bethlehem, almost all of the significant Christian holy places are in the hands on the P.A. I strongly suspect it's Paleo aggression being blamed on Jews (as usual) and covered for by the usual apologists and anti-semites. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2012-09-08 11:57 |
| #3 g(r) - that was beneath you. Christians are Israel's greatest friend and ally. This behavior is as unacceptable as anti-semitism, and should be rooted out as viciously |
| Posted by: Frank G 2012-09-08 10:00 |
| #2 That's your excuse? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2012-09-08 09:01 |
| #1 Mum on Muzzies blowing churches and butchering Christians every day. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2012-09-08 08:07 |