As non-orthodox Christians around the world celebrated Easter on April 5, 2026, an eerie silence swept over Jerusalem amid Israel’s war on Iran and Lebanon. Closed shops and police checkpoints restricting the number of worshippers in the Old City turned a once-joyous occasion into a somber affair mirroring the city’s looming gray skies.1

In Jesus Christ’s birthplace, the religious figure’s resurrection has been marred not just by the ongoing war but also the increasing levels of violence that Palestine’s Christians are experiencing.

On March 30, 2026, the Jerusalem-based interreligious Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue released its 2025 annual report on attacks against Christians in East Jerusalem and Israel—highlighting the intimidation and abusive aggression the community continues to face.

The organization documented 155 incidents against Christians in 2025, with physical assaults—such as spitting, hitting, and pepper spraying—being the most prevalent form at 61 (39 percent) of the incidents recorded. The Rossing Center also recorded 52 attacks on church properties (which includes spitting on churches, graffiti, trespassing, damaging statues, arson, and throwing garbage and stones), 28 incidents of verbal harassment, and 14 instances of defacing public signs containing Christian content.2

“We found that physical attacks, in particular spitting, which mainly targets clergy because clergy is way more visible, remain the most visible form of hostility,” Federica Sasso, the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations coordinator at the Rossing Center, said during a March 30, 2026, press briefing on its annual report.3 “Alongside, though, we also saw that insults and intimidation were reported. These incidents may seem minor [on] their own, but if we look at the accumulation, the daily accumulation that they create, then we can really see that there’s constant pressure that shapes the daily life for Christian communities and increases the sense of vulnerability.”

According to the Rossing Center report, cases of verbal harassment increased in the last year—from 13 reported in 2024 to 28 in 2025.

“Such episodes—often spontaneous, difficult to document, and rarely prosecuted—reinforce among Christians the perception that they are viewed not as an integral part of the land’s social fabric, but as outsiders and, at times, unwanted guests,” the report states. “This delegitimizing message is especially destabilizing for local Christians, for whom Jerusalem and the Holy Land are not merely sites of pilgrimage but a homeland rooted in centuries of continuous community life.”4

The Rossing Center emphasized in its report and briefing that the figures recorded do not accurately represent the reality on the ground and may be an undercount, as incidents often go unreported.

“We always stress that the real number of attacks is certainly higher due to the difficulties in tracking the majority of the incidents, but year by year, we’re noticing a growing normalization of this behavior in public spaces and a broader erosion of basic respect,” Sasso said during the conference. “Even looking at the numbers, we need to consider the feeling that the atmosphere has created, which is the fact that the Christian presence is becoming more fragile, more contested, and possibly more uncertain.”

In addition to the Rossing Center’s report, the Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC), a hotline tracking attacks against Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem, released its 2025 report summarizing the anti-Christian incidents it documented in 2025. The RFDC recorded 181 such incidents in 2025, with spitting—at 109 incidents (60 percent)—constituting the most common type. Other types of harassment included 32 incidents (18 percent) of verbal abuse, 22 incidents (12 percent) of vandalism, and 9 incidents (5 percent) of physical violence, among others.5

Over 80 percent of the incidents reported occurred in Jerusalem, with 150 in Jerusalem’s holy city. The Armenian Quarter bore the brunt of the attacks—43 incidents of harassment were reported there in 2025.6

These data align with the Rossing Center’s findings. Spitting, which has considerable support from ultra-Orthodox Jews, has become a troubling phenomenon. According to a September 2025 Rossing Center survey of Jewish Israeli attitudes toward Christians, 3.7 percent of Jews in Israel express support for those who spit at Christians, with 2.5 percent admitting they would do this. Support for spitting increased to 19 percent among ultra-Orthodox Jews, with 12 percent saying that they would spit. For Jewish Israelis aged 18 to 24, 12 percent said they support spitting and would spit themselves.7

“These findings reflect the reality on the ground, where a higher prevalence of spitting is evident among young people. In fact, all attackers responsible for incidents tracked during the reporting period and in previous years are Jewish,” according the Rossing Center report.8

The Rossing Center identifies the spitting perpetrators as ultra-Orthodox, ultra-nationalist, and students at prominent Jewish seminaries in Jerusalem.9

Moreover, in 2024, the Rossing Center surveyed local Christians and found that those in Jerusalem endure a higher degree of harassment compared to their counterparts elsewhere in Israel, with 20 percent saying they experienced harassment because of their religion, while only 5 percent reported this experience in the Galilee area and 2 percent in Haifa. In this context, 42 percent of Jerusalem’s Christian population told the Rossing Center that they feel uncomfortable wearing Christian symbols in predominantly Jewish areas, compared with 15 percent in central Israel and 18 percent in the Galilee.10

“According to the testimonies we collected during our conversations, priests and nuns living in certain areas of Jerusalem, such as the Armenian Quarter and Mount Zion in the Old City, now face an almost certain risk of harassment each time they step outside,” the report states.11 “This raises serious concerns about the safety of religious figures and their ability to perform their duties without fear of intimidation or harm.”

Christian holidays, specifically around the time of Easter, have become sources of tension, as the latest Rossing Center report demonstrates.

Due to safety concerns regarding overcrowding, police have tightened their security policies during events such as the Holy Fire ceremony, held on the Saturday before Orthodox Easter, the holiest day of the year in the Orthodox church. In recent years, police have erected several checkpoints at gates throughout the Christian Quarter, with worshippers reporting difficulties in reaching their ceremonies or even being outright denied access to these places—infringing on their freedom of movement and religion and right to worship unimpeded.

“In 2025, these restrictions were felt particularly strongly, and multiple media sources highlighted the excessive use of force by the police,” the report states.

Police restrictions reached a breaking point earlier this month amid Israel’s complete closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during its war on Iran when the police prevented the Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and a few other senior church leaders from reaching or entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass, which marks the Holy Week before Easter in the Catholic faith. According to the Latin Patriarchate, this was the first time in centuries that the church heads were unable to celebrate Palm Sunday at the church.12 Following a sharp international backlash, the leaders were subsequently allowed to hold services with only a few religious figures in attendance.13

So far, in the first quarter of 2026, the RFDC has recorded 33 incidents of harassment between January to March, again with most attacks occurring in Jerusalem’s Old City and classified as spitting. Within the Old City, the harassment occurred primarily in the Armenian Quarter.14

For Armenian Quarter resident Hagop Djernazian, the increasing anti-Christian violence in Jerusalem is turning the city upside down.

“I grew up in a different Jerusalem than the one we see today,” said Djernazian, who was a guest speaker at the Rossing Center’s March 30, 2026, press briefing on its annual report.15 “A great deal can change in just a few years, and in Jerusalem, the past four to five years have brought a dramatic shift in the character of this city.”

Djernazian explained how events, such as the Armenian Patriarchate secretly leasing approximately 25 percent of the Armenian Quarter neighborhood to a Jewish investor in 2021 (a deal that was subsequently reneged upon), threaten to upend the Christian presence in the city, especially amid land deals, which did not come to public attention until 2023. They also ignite settler attacks and police brutality in the neighborhood that continues to persist today.

“Yet, despite all of this, I have never seriously considered leaving Jerusalem, even now . . . when I constantly wonder what more could happen to us as Christians in the city that we all call home,” Djernazian said. “I stay not because I’m forced to or because I have no other options. I stay because I choose to remain in the place that shaped my childhood, my youth, and will shape my future . . . even when others would prefer to see its Christian presence disappear.”