Walking out of the main gate of the Armenian Convent in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on November 26, 2024, Father Gevorg Hayrapetyan saw a religious Jewish man walking in his direction, singing a verse from Psalms.

“When he saw me, his mood changed and he started to curse Jesus—not once, not twice, but repeatedly,” Hayrapetyan told Jerusalem Story.1 The man was speaking in English, intending that Hayrapetyan hear him.

An altercation ensued between the two and police intervened. But the attack wasn’t the first Hayrapetyan has experienced in his 23 years living in Jerusalem as a representative of the Armenian church in the city. The deacon, easily identifiable by his long black cleric’s garb, has been spat on and pepper-sprayed, in addition to being verbally harassed. But for him, cursing God is the worst of these attacks.

“When they spit on the ground or even on you, you can’t take it personally, but when they touch your faith, which is precious for you, you don’t know what to do with these people, because also they know that [in the eyes of the law], they are protected. They can say whatever they want,” Hayrapetyan said.

Incidents like these have become all too common. According to the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, a Jerusalem-based interfaith peacebuilding organization, violence against Christians has been on the rise in East Jerusalem and across Christian communities in Israel. In 2024, the organization documented 111 cases of attacks against Christians, all of them by Jews. Most of the violence targeted international clergy and included spitting, pepper-spraying, and hitting—all types of physical assault. Other instances of abuse include attacks on church properties, defacement of Christian signs, harassment, and violations of freedom of religion such as restricting access to religious sites.2

“Christians in this region find themselves to be in perhaps the most vulnerable position they have faced in a long time,” Federica Sasso, coordinator of the Rossing Center’s Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations, said during a press conference on the group’s annual report, held on March 27, 2025, at the center.3 “The rise in harassment is part of a broader and more subtle erosion of the symbolic and physical space that Christians have occupied here for centuries.”

Hayrapetyan says that the wars in Gaza and Lebanon have caused Christian tourists to stop coming to Jerusalem, leaving Christians who live there more exposed to attacks. But he also recognizes that the same kind of “cleansing” rhetoric that has characterized the genocide in Gaza can be heard from some of Israel’s most prominent religious leaders about Christians in Jerusalem, present in the city for millennia.

“The incitement against Christians in Jerusalem has been on the rise for years, but especially since the right-wing Israeli government [came to power] with many members who are hostile to Christians,”4 says Dr. Mitri Raheb, Lutheran pastor and president of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. He says that in the first quarter of 2025 alone, 44 incidents have been recorded, including spitting on clergy, verbal abuse, and stone throwing. Vandalism of Christian institutions, churches, and cemeteries is increasing as well.

“As we celebrate Palm Sunday, remembering Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem, the local Palestinian community in the West Bank is prohibited by the Israeli military from entering Jerusalem. As we are starting to celebrate the Easter week, Israeli missiles hit the Anglican hospital in Gaza and damaged the old sanctuary there,” says Raheb.

While Jerusalem’s Christian population constituted 25 percent of the city’s residents in 1922, Christian leaders believe their numbers are dwindling to comprise fewer than 1 percent.5 That leaves fewer than 13,000 Christians in Jerusalem, most of them indigenous Palestinians and Armenians, as well as about 3,500 church representatives from different countries.6 The majority of Christians in Jerusalem belong to the Orthodox and Catholic denominations; a small number identify as Protestants.7 According to a December 2024 survey conducted by the Rossing Center, 36 percent of Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem are considering emigrating, with Jerusalemites citing sociopolitical concerns as the dominant reason.8 Christians are negatively impacted by the rise of Jewish ultranationalism and increased official emphasis on Israel as a state for the Jews, as made official by the passage of the 2018 Jewish Nation-State Law.9

“The political social climate not only hasn’t changed, but actually it’s gotten worse,” Hannah Bendcowsky, project director at the Rossing Center, explained at the press conference. “The extremism, the polarization within the society, the negative attitude or ignoring [of] minorities is getting more difficult.”10

Christians in Jerusalem endure a unique set of problems compared to their counterparts in Israel. One in five survey respondents in Jerusalem reported experiencing harassment, compared with Christians in Israel, where fewer than one in ten respondents reported harassment (5 percent in the Galilee and 2 percent in Haifa), and who often live in predominantly Christian communities.11 Jerusalem, on the other hand, has a high population of religious Jews living in close proximity to Christian communities, frequently escalating tensions.

“Palestinian Christians in East Jerusalem face many challenges related to their civic status,” Hussam Elias, project director at the Rossing Center and executive secretary of the International Christian Committee in Israel, said during the press conference.12

For example, Palestinians in Jerusalem—no matter their religious affiliation—hold permanent-residency status in Israel but are not granted citizenship rights, meaning they can’t vote and don’t have an official passport (see Precarious, Not Permanent: The Status Held by Palestinian Jerusalemites (Pt. 2)). Additionally, Palestinian Jerusalemites endure an endless cycle of expulsion threats through home demolitions and Israeli settler attacks on property. Since the beginning of 2025, 61 structures have been demolished in East Jerusalem.13

“[This] deepens their crisis and their ability to develop economically and socially as a community within East Jerusalem, thus increasing that tendency of the young generation to emigrate,” Elias added.

Almost half of Jerusalem Christians say they feel uncomfortable displaying religious symbols—by wearing a cross, for example—in Jewish-majority public spaces, according to the Rossing Center survey.14 This sentiment is mirrored among many Israeli Jews, who feel discomfort at the sight of Christian symbols, associating them with centuries of religious persecution from Christians (see Israeli Attacks on Christians in Jerusalem Are Denounced by Clergy and Christian Residents).

During the press conference, Reverend David Neuhaus said that official measures are needed to counteract prevailing religious attitudes and violence. “There needs to be a lot more focus, not only on the individual acts of violence, abuse, and harassment, but also on some of the official attitudes that we encounter as Christians living in the State of Israel.”15

While physical and verbal violence is the most palpable and prevalent display of persecution against Christians in Jerusalem, attempts to confiscate church properties are also putting pressure on Christians in the very city that sits at the center of their faith.

For instance, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority introduced a plan in 2022 to expand the Jerusalem Walls National Park to encompass parts of the Mount of Olives, where many church properties are located. The proposal wouldn’t strip churches of their ownership but does seek to bisect church land with a promenade to serve Jewish visitors. Through its construction, the promenade would also seize a section of the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth orphanage, owned by the Catholic Church.16

More recently, in 2024, church leaders petitioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order Jerusalem and three other municipalities (Tel Aviv, Ramla, and Nazareth) not to impose arnona (property tax) on church properties, after several municipalities initiated legal proceedings against the churches over alleged tax debts (see Jerusalem Churches Protest the Municipality’s Attempts to Tax Them). The issue flared up again in February 2025, when the Armenian Patriarchate called on Netanyahu to protect its property from being seized by the Jerusalem Municipality over allegations of decades of unpaid taxes.17 Often when church leaders lodge complaints, Israel retaliates by threatening the visas of their representatives, threatening the very presence of ancient Christian institutions in the city.18

“My grievance lies with the churches,” says Hind Shraydeh, a Christian Palestinian journalist from Jerusalem.19 They should

Shraydeh says that “the church must be stronger, engaging in a legal confrontation with the occupation using international law and filing lawsuits in international courts through its legal arms. Deterrent measures must be taken, and the issue must be internationalized in the media to deter any future recurrence.” The Rossing Center notes that media coverage of attacks against Christians seems to be in decline, perhaps because the attacks seldom affect international tourists, who have disappeared due to the regional escalation.20

Despite the growing concerns over land confiscation and Christian safety, Jerusalem’s Christian community remains steadfast.

“We need to keep this Christian heritage and also our Armenian heritage [alive]. This is a 2,000-year-long heritage,” Hayrapetyan said. “This is precious for us. We lost many other places, but [Jerusalem] is connected to our faith.”