Post by Fr David Neuhaus SJ | 4 May 2026
Kicking a nun, smashing a crucifix
In the past weeks, international media has amply covered two horrific incidents carried out by Jewish Israeli extremists against Christians. In the first incident, on April 19, 2026, an Israeli soldier was photographed by one of his fellow soldiers smashing the face of Christ on a crucifix that had been torn down. The photo was then circulated on social media. This took place in the South Lebanese town of Debel, in an area occupied by the Israeli army as part of its latest round of war against Lebanon, claiming to seek to root out Hezbollah, the Shiite militia (see BBC coverage here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd575n1znzo). In the second incident, on April 28, 2026, a French Dominican religious, while walking to the Cenacle on Mount Zion, was attacked from behind, forcefully pushed to the ground and then brutally kicked by her Jewish Israeli attacker. See a video of the attack here:
Both these incidents took place at a time when aggression against Christians, especially traditionally clothed men and women religious in Jerusalem, has been receiving extensive coverage. Some of this was stimulated by a report on these acts of violence, published by the Rossing Center, an Israeli NGO documenting these acts, on March 30, 2026. Read the report here: https://rossingcenter.org/attacks-on-christians-in-israel-and-east-jerusalem-annual-report-2025/)
In the aftermath of the broad international outcry following both these incidents, the Israeli authorities were relatively quick to react. The soldier who desecrated the crucifix and the photographer were both arrested and sentenced to thirty days in military jail. The religious woman’s attacker was also detained. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu published his own reaction to the soldier’s desecration on his X account: “Yesterday, like the overwhelming majority of Israelis, I was stunned and saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon.” He went on to say, “While Christians are being slaughtered in Syria and Lebanon by Muslims, the Christian population in Israel thrives unlike elsewhere in the Middle East. Israel is the only country in the region that the Christian population and standard of living is growing. Israel is the only place in the Middle East that adheres to freedom of worship for all.” (https://x.com/netanyahu/status/2046166181258650016)
Most Christians in Israel would tend not to agree with Mr. Netanyahu. Religious freedom is severely hampered in access to the Holy Places, subject to draconian controls by the Israeli authorities. Furthermore, many will point out that in Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, Christians have been slaughtered alongside Muslims. It is enough to remember the two women struck down by a sniper in the courtyard of the Catholic parish in Gaza on December 16, 2023, the same parish then hit by a tank, killing another three parishioners on July 25, 2025. No soldier was brought to justice. It is enough to remember the repeated brutal attacks by settlers on the West Bank on the Christian village of Taybeh. No one has been brought to justice. It is enough to remember the slaying of a Maronite priest in his village in south Lebanon on March 9, 2026. No one has been brought to justice. And these are just a few of the Christians killed among the tens of thousands of victims of Israel’s war efforts.
However, there is another very troubling aspect of the noble protests of so many when they witness the desecrated Christ and the unfortunate Dominican sister. Where are those that protest so loud and clear the acts of Israeli extremists against Christians when an Israeli extremist government continues to kill Gazans, starve them, blockade them in disease infested ruins, overrun now by rats, despite a supposed ceasefire in Gaza. Where are these crystal-clear voices when Israeli forces, settlers and army, continue their ethnic cleansing of villages in the West Bank, imposing a reign of terror on so many men, women and children. Where are these critics of Israeli extremists when the Israeli army continues to destroy south Lebanon despite the US imposed truce, bulldozing and dynamiting villages in the south so that the tens of thousands of villagers who have fled will have no place to return to.
The acts of individual extremists, attacking Christians in Jerusalem and elsewhere, take place in a social, political and cultural environment in which violence has become not only a solution to every woe but a way of life. In his recent pastoral letter (https://lpj.org/en/news/letter-to-the-diocese), Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa wrote, “We are witnessing a renewed reliance on the use of force as a decisive means for resolving disputes, increasingly reduced almost exclusively to its violent and military forms, at the expense of all other avenues grounded in law, dialogue, and responsibility toward civilians. War has become the object of an idolatrous cult: we no longer sit down at table to avoid conflict, but rather consider war a possible, or even inevitable, outcome. Civilians are no longer simply considered collateral damage, rather this damage is blamed on the enemy’s failure to surrender, or they are seen as instruments used to achieve the goals of war. (…) When force becomes common exchange and the dominant criterion, it ends up fueling a spiral of violence that is truly difficult to halt. (…) This violence leaves deep wounds: material destruction and moral lacerations that weigh on future generations. Therefore, while not ignoring the complexity of the choices authorities must face, we cannot fail to call to mind that force cannot be the ultimate horizon, nor can it serve as the foundation on which to build a peaceful future.”