Beating and Weeping | Natan Zahavi

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This week, Israel once again "earned" negative criticism and was accused of racism after a gang of young men wearing kippahs attacked the Armenian Church in Jerusalem and spat on Christian clergy. The attack on the priests is not an exceptional event, but another link in a long chain of harassment against Christian clergy in the Old City and its surroundings in recent years.

On Saturday evening, August 2, the police arrested six suspects, including five minors, after they allegedly arrived at the Armenian Patriarchate complex at St. James Monastery in the Old City, threw stones, spat at the entrance, and harassed priests and clergy. The incident sparked condemnation from the leaders of the Armenian Church and the Christian community in the country and also received coverage in international media.

This incident joins a series of similar cases: in April of this year, a French nun was attacked on Mount Zion after a young Jewish man allegedly pushed her to the ground, causing her a head injury. The suspect was arrested shortly thereafter. Even earlier, in 2023, videos were circulated around the world showing young Jews spitting at priests and monks in the Old City of Jerusalem. The images sparked sharp criticism in Israel and abroad, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who understands public relations and understood the damage that would be caused to Israel in the world, condemned the actions and declared that this is unacceptable behavior that does not represent the State of Israel.

In February 2023, a young Jewish man broke into the Church of the Flagellation on Via Dolorosa, attacked a priest, and tried to topple a statue of Jesus. He was arrested on the spot and prosecuted. That same year, a series of other harassments against Christian clergy were reported, including spitting, curses, threats, and harassment on the streets of the Old City, mainly in the area of the Armenian Quarter and Mount Zion. Alongside the harm to the clergy themselves, acts of vandalism against Christian sites have also been recorded in recent years. For example, dozens of tombstones were smashed in the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion, and in 2015, the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes in Tabgha was set on fire, in one of the most severe "price tag" acts committed against a Christian institution in Israel.

According to the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, which has documented the phenomenon over the years, in 2023, 94 anti-Christian incidents were recorded in Israel, in 2024 their number rose to 111, and in the first half of 2026 alone, 107 incidents have already been documented. A significant portion of the cases occurred in Jerusalem and included spitting at priests and monks, physical attacks, stone-throwing, property damage, and threats.

Church leaders in Jerusalem claim that despite condemnations from the political and police echelons, Christian clergy continue to face expressions of hostility and harassment almost every week, mainly due to their clothing that identifies them as clergy. According to them, increased enforcement and prosecuting the attackers are a necessary condition for curbing the phenomenon and maintaining freedom of worship and the safety of the clergy and believers in the Holy City.

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Violence against those who are not Jewish in the Holy City has a place of honor among Arab bus drivers. In March of this year, Ali Musa, a bus driver from East Jerusalem, a married man and father of four daughters, was driving line 619 from Beit Shemesh to Jerusalem. In the evening hours, when the line stopped near the Ramot junction in the capital, a group of ten passengers got off the back of the bus, began to threaten Musa, opened an emergency valve, and attacked him.

"More than ten people beat me brutally, I only woke up in the hospital, they almost murdered me with beatings," testified Musa, who tried to defend himself, but the attackers continued to beat him vigorously.

According to Musa, he was attacked only because he is an Arab. Police forces arrived after the attackers fled the scene. No one was arrested and judged. According to Musa, "The police arrived after they ran away. I started to fear for my life from such racist people. I am a driver who provides services to passengers and not a criminal or someone who came to cause problems. I fear that this will happen again to me or someone else. Such cases continue to happen, and nothing is done." He was right.

At the beginning of the week, a driver for the Superbus bus company was attacked in Jerusalem when he was about to start a night trip on the line. The driver started a shift and left the Ramot neighborhood in the city, stopped at a red light at the Eshkol-Ramot junction, and then several young people began to beat on the sides of the bus. The driver opened the window and received severe blows that led to loss of consciousness, loss of four teeth, and facial injuries. After regaining consciousness, he heard the young people continuing to threaten and curse him. He escaped from the junction, contacted the police, and was taken for medical treatment.

About half a year ago, in the same neighborhood, two teenagers attacked a bus driver and a municipal sanitation worker. In a security camera video on the street, the two are seen riding electric bicycles, stopping near the sanitation worker Khalil A-Rashak, and beating him again and again. Even when he fell to the sidewalk, the two did not stop their actions. According to the suspicion, they attacked him only because he is an Arab, and indictments were filed against them by the police prosecution department for severe assault. Israel Ganon, chairman of the Public Transport Drivers Organization: "We are talking about two or three attacks a day. Every evening I find myself accompanying drivers - it has become fashionable to beat them."

By March 22, 2026, 23 suspects were arrested in Jerusalem for involvement in attacks on bus drivers, and at that time, indictments were filed against seven defendants in three incidents. The data shows that in 2025, 812 attacks against bus drivers were recorded - an increase of about 17% compared to 2024, when there were 694 attacks. More than 36% of the violence incidents in the past year were defined as severe to very severe, and included the use of cold weapons such as knives, glass bottles, sticks, and the buses' emergency hammers. In February 2026, a survey was published among thousands of drivers according to which 54% of the drivers reported that they experienced a physical attack during their work.

In Israel, it is customary to publicize prominently every event, large or small, of antisemitism in the world. Politicians, journalists, commentators, and other studio sitters warn against the phenomenon of attacking Jews because of their appearance, clothing, or Jewish symbols that characterize them, sharp words are said about harming synagogues or other Jewish institutions, but when things concern harm on a racist and religious background that occurs in Israel, the reports are minor, there are no extensive panels discussing the subject, and the politicians hardly make a sound - especially not when it comes to a pre-election period. It is time for the enforcement authorities, the prosecution, and the courts to understand the enormous damage caused to Israel by the publications about these events abroad and act with all the power in their hands to stop these phenomena before it is too late. You have been warned.

The war that has been going on for years does not change the fact that everyone does not stop talking about peace. They talk, talk, talk, talk - and meanwhile, the cemeteries are filling up with casualties and the emergency rooms and hospitalization wards are full to capacity. This is the time to remember Muki's song, "Everyone talks about peace. Everyone talks about peace. No one talks about justice. For one it is heaven, for another hell. How many fingers on the trigger?

Until when will the storm rage? Until when will a man be worse than a dog? Faces slide on the blade, fingers caress the sword. Sometimes life brings me to my knees. There is no guard at the gate, no sign from heaven. I see people who live dreams and hopes, people who live only intrigues and plots. There are those who ask questions and there are no answers. There are those who are full only of claims and demands, but...

Everyone talks about peace...

So we are left alone, talking to the wall, there is no one to talk to. If only we understood that we are all one, we would see everything connect. When your property burns, your soul will burn, if you do not hurry to save yourself. We murdered land and we murdered a soul. We have almost no air left to breathe. And the world is in constant motion - makes a turn and returns to the same point. What goes up, must come down. How do you take everything in moderation?

Everyone talks about peace...

And there are people who take ownership of God. And there are those who struggle, kick, and scratch. How many of us really listen? Everyone talks about peace.

Everyone talks about peace...

Everyone has the same dream. On a mountain, in a valley. They continue to talk, talk about peace. But there will be no peace without justice."