A Nun Recalls Living through the 1967 War in Jerusalem and the Changes Since

Born in the 1930s, Sister Jasmine,1 a Catholic nun and teacher, was 31 years old when she arrived in Jerusalem in 1966. Sixty years later, her vivid memory of the Naksa is intact. In a conversation with Jerusalem Story in April 2026, she recalled how she came to Jerusalem just before the war and has remained for decades.

Among the first things she learned was Hebrew. Though nuns and priests who specialize in scripture, theology, and Biblical studies in the Roman Catholic Church learn Latin, they often also learn Hebrew and Greek to gain deeper insight in their study of the Old Testament in its original form.

Having a strong personality and will, Sister Jasmine excelled in language studies. She also received her driver’s license in the 1960s, becoming the first sister to drive in Jerusalem. While in Jerusalem, she taught Palestinian university students on different subjects, all while driving through the streets of the country, mentoring and learning.

“Then the 1967 War changed everything,” she said.

“The 1967 War was like a ghost about to emerge,” Sister Jasmine explained. She recalled how once the war seemed imminent, she and the young sisters—who stayed at the Lycée Français de Jérusalem located on the Street of Prophets—began to prepare themselves: they closed windows, brought sacks, water, and essentials. They had assumed they would be a total of six sisters but, lo and behold, they would be joined by people seeking shelter, including an Arab woman pregnant with twins.

The war began on the same day that the French Consulate had planned to conduct a French-language exam in the Lycée. On that day, Sister Jasmine found a bomb in the garden. The exam got canceled as Israel attacked the Arab airports in the region and Egypt closed the Suez Canal.

Sister Jasmine recalled that some people had expected the war to last for a month and stayed in the country, but others left as soon as the war began. She too had the option to leave, but she opted to remain at the convent. Believing that it was a safe space, many people came to shelter in the house of the school.

During the Naksa, the house was used as a shelter, and the sisters could not refuse people (whether Jewish, Muslim, or Christian) escaping to safety. About 25 people hid in the basement of the school, including the Arab woman pregnant with twins. “We prepared everything for her. And everything had been neatly set up,” Sister Jasmine explained. “We had children in the house; enfants de la maison,” referring to the Christian children (possibly Arab orphans or foreign children) who were long-term residents, raised and educated within the institution.

They were all technically stuck downstairs, and most of the time, they had no clue what was happening above. Whenever they heard F-16 aircrafts and sounds of shooting in the dark hours of the night, their imaginations soared, she described. Since they couldn’t leave the shelter, Sister Jasmine explained that access to news was limited, and said news was inconsistent: Each side—Arab and Israeli—made proclamations of victory. They would later find out that it had been the Israeli aircrafts going toward the Arab states they heard and the Israelis were winning the war. Israel would occupy the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza, the Sinai, and the Golan Heights.2

Sister Jasmine explained how it had not crossed her mind when she arrived in Jerusalem that she would be stuck in a convent during a war. It could well be the end of one’s life, she explains. Still, she did not question her decision to stay with the people. The war was quite intense with airplanes and bombs flying over their heads nonstop at a very close distance, she said.

Sister Jasmine mentions how after the 1967 War, she managed to visit St. Joseph Hospital, also known as the French Hospital, outside New Gate. She drove there on the seventh day after the war, after getting a special permit, but she was not allowed to go anywhere except the hospital. She made her way to the hospital from Damascus Gate and saw dead people on the street, many of whom were Jordanian soldiers, covered in sheets. She spotted a Catholic cardinal officiating the blessing of the deceased (praying over the dead bodies as he moved among them, in case they were Christian). She also saw wrecked cars, seemingly burned, and destroyed towers. She closed her eyes for a moment as she drove ahead, shuddering, but could not escape the big square near Damascus Gate that was full of dead people on the ground.

Since Jasmine said all changes pertaining to Jerusalem’s transformation began after the 1967 War. Prior to that, Jerusalem had seemed like a small town with Mandelbaum Gate separating the Israeli and Jordanian-controlled areas. And going through the gate had been simple, like walking through a doorway. She explains how the war changed everything. A year prior, people from all over the world were able to visit holy sites to celebrate Easter on both sides of Mandelbaum Gate.

Maison Abraham (the House of Abraham) near Ras al-‘Amud, opposite the Old City of Jerusalem, had been full of pilgrims and travelers of all religions. The guesthouse was built in 1903 by the French Benedictines, in coordination with the Vatican and served as a seminary until 1948, after which the seminary was transferred to Beirut.3 In 1964, with the support of Pope Paul VI and the patriarch of the Syriac Church, it was renovated by Secours Catholique—Caritas France, with the intention of welcoming poor pilgrims from the Middle East. The building became available that year as a hotel to Secours Catholique, welcoming over a thousand pilgrims in less than a year.4

Although the House of Abraham maintains its presence and continues to welcome pilgrims as a place of hospitality (as supported by Pope Francis in 2014), their website confirms Sister Jasmine’s words that the war did change everything. Less than three years after war broke out, the guesthouse went from being in an area controlled by Jordan to one that was now militarily occupied by Israel. As a result, the number and type of guests became dependent on political tensions. Pilgrims from the Middle East faced significant challenges to accessing the Holy Land when it came under Israeli rule; therefore, the guesthouse began hosting training sessions for European seminarians.5

Before 1967, people from all over, including the Arab world, were able to visit Jerusalem, Sister Jasmine said. She describes how it was beautiful; a real eye-opening experience. But after 1967, and especially these days, even the local population cannot access Jerusalem fully. “It’s unheard of,” she said with a sigh.

Sister Jasmine mentions how things had seemed more open in Jerusalem in the 1990s. However, the general intolerance against “the other” has fully seeped in and overwhelmed Israeli society, with an exclusivist mindset taking precedence.

Incidents of intolerance against Christians have been on the rise.6 For example, a French nun and researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological School in Jerusalem was violently assaulted by a 36-year-old Jewish man in May 2026. The nun had been walking in the Mount Zion area.7 The Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem condemned the attack, stressing that “this is not an isolated incident, but part of a troubling pattern of growing hostility toward the Christian community and its symbols.”8

There has been an abundance of anti-Christian incidents in Jerusalem by Jewish Israeli extremists through spitting, vandalism, and harassment. On August 2, Jewish Israeli teens were caught on video surveillance spitting on and throwing rocks at the entrance of an Armenian church in the Old City.9 Priests and nuns are getting spat on almost every day, so much so that Christian clergy are hiding their crosses and avoid wearing their habits when walking in Jerusalem to protect themselves.10

Sister Jasmine notes that while the clergy do not expect to be treated better than laypeople, the dismissive attitude of the Israeli state and military toward the clergy demonstrates a surprising general contemptuous attitude. For decades, priests and nuns (including senior church officials) have been under scrutiny and aggressive security measures, including at Israeli checkpoints and airports.

Unfortunately, the treatment of religious groups, whether minorities or within the Israeli government, has been instrumentalized to fit political agendas. Sister Jasmine highlights that religion is a personal connection, and people of faith must maintain peaceful relations between each other. After all, the Sixth Commandment communicated to Moses was “thou shall not kill,” she reflects.

There is beauty and strength in faith, Sister Jasmine stresses; adding that faith continues to have a massive role in her life and her beliefs have been the compass directing her path in times of crisis.