Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing policies are emboldening attacks on 2,000-year-old community, says Catholic regional leader
“The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new,” Pizzaballa told the AP. “These people feel they are protected … that the cultural and political atmosphere now can justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians.”
But Christians say they feel authorities don’t protect their sites from targeted attacks. And tensions have surged after anHostility towards minority Christians is, a crucible of tension that the Israeli government annexed in 1967. “The rightwing elements are out to Judaise the Old City and the other lands, and we feel nothing is holding them back now,” said Father Don Binder, a pastor at St George’s Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem. “Churches have been the major stumbling block.”