Concerns raised about spate of vandalism by hardline Jewish nationalists in Jerusalem churches and attacks in Galilee

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Christians in Israel and Palestine fear an escalation of violence against them after a spate of vandalism in Jerusalem churches by hardline Jewish nationalists ahead of Pope Francis's visit this month.

Earlier this week vandals wrote "Death to Arabs and Christians" in Hebrew on the Vatican's Notre Dame centre in Jerusalem's Old City and on Thursday night offensive graffiti was written on a wall close to the Romanian Orthodox church.

Pope Francis is due to stay at the Notre Dame centre during his two-day trip to Jerusalem and Bethlehem from 24 to 26 May.

Both incidents come just weeks after a spate of attacks against Christians in Galilee, where a place of worship was vandalised and stones thrown at pilgrims. A radical rabbi also sent a threatening letter to a priest in Nazareth.

"It is increasing daily because nobody is doing anything about it. The police must know who these people are," said Jamal Khader, the head of the Latin Patriarchate seminary and spokesman for the pope's visit to Palestine.

Khader said there were no safety fears in terms of the pope's visit, but he dismissed criticism by some commentators in Israel that graffiti was a minor offence being blown out of proportion.

"Should we wait until they start attacking Christians? What we have seen in Rwanda, in South Africa, even in Germany in the early 30s is that … a wave of hatred, of demonising the other, can be followed by attacks," he said.

In a statement earlier this week the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said that Christians in Israel felt neither safe nor protected and called on the government to take action against rightwing Jewish extremists.

Acts of vandalism and violence against Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank are known as "price-tagging", a campaign of intimidation that extremists claim is the price Palestinians should pay for Israeli government crackdowns or restrictions on settlement activity.

In recent days senior politicians in Israel, including the justice minister, Tzipi Livni, and the internal security minister, Yitkhak Aharonovich, have argued that rightwing groups carrying out such attacks should be classified as terrorists. Their stance follows extremist attacks on Israeli soldiers bin the radical settlement of Yitzhar.

Recent attacks, however, have specifically targetted Christians and have taken place in the heart of the Old City.

"It's not clear why this focus now … against Christians," Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said.

Rosenfeld dismissed speculation that police were expecting an organised attack by rightwing groups to coincide with the pope's visit. He said numerous arrests had been made in response to recent attacks in the West Bank, although not yet relating to the incidents in Jerusalem.

"We're cracking down hard on suspects … against both the Christian and Muslim community," he said.

A senior official with Palestinian Liberation Organisation said the attacks demonstrated that the extreme right considered Christians and Palestinians as one and the same.

"It's not like attacks on churches are something new. Here, Christians are not seen as Christians, they're seen as Palestinians. Churches are seen as an important example of Palestinian presence. Even though there are many foreign Christians here … [the extremists] don't make the distinction," he said.

Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for the Israeli NGO B'Tselem, which documents violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, agreed that the attacks were not a surprise.

"There is a lot of hatred of Christians amongst the Israeli extreme right. It is not an unusual situation. But it is high profile, when a church or a monastery gets attacked it raises their profile," she said.