Sunday, January 18, 2026

Senior clergy say outside agendas are fracturing Christian unity in the Holy Land and undermining their authority

Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III blesses people with a decorated cross during his arrival at the Manger Square outside the Nativity Church complex in the biblical city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank as Eastern Christians mark Christmas Eve on January 6, 2026 [Hazem Bader/AFP]

Jerusalem Patriarch, churches say Christian Zionism threatens Christianity

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/18/jerusalem-patriarch-churches-say-christian-zionism-threatens-christianity

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Senior Christian leaders in Jerusalem have issued a warning against outside interference threatening the unity and future of Christianity in the Holy Land, singling out “Christian Zionism” and political actors linked to Israel.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem said recent activities by local individuals advancing “damaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism”, “mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock”.

The church leaders warned that these efforts have found support among “certain political actors in Israel and beyond”, accusing them of pushing an agenda that could undermine the Christian presence not only in the Holy Land but across the wider Middle East.

The intervention comes amid growing concern among Palestinian Christians that Israel’s policies – including land confiscation, illegal settlement expansion, and pressure on church property – are accelerating the erosion of one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.

A powerful strand of evangelical Christianity in the United States continues to shape political and financial support for Israel, drawing growing concern from church leaders in Jerusalem.

A view of the Holy Family Church, which was damaged during the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, before the arrival of Palestinian Christians to celebrate Christmas Mass, in Gaza City, on December 24, 2025

Many Christian Zionists also embrace the “prosperity gospel”, which teaches that blessing Israel brings personal and financial reward.

Critics say these beliefs translate into donations and political backing for Israel’s settlement enterprise, entrenching occupation while marginalising Palestinian Christians and undermining the historic churches of the Holy Land.

The patriarchs said they were also “deeply concerned” that individuals promoting these agendas have been “welcomed at official levels both locally and internationally”, calling such engagement an intrusion into the internal life of the churches.

“These actions constitute interference in the internal life of the churches,” the statement said, accusing outside actors of disregarding the authority and responsibility of Jerusalem’s historic Christian leadership.

Threats to Christians’ existence

It is unclear which recent events the statement is referring to; however, a recent report by the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem found “threats to Christian heritage – particularly in Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and Gaza alongside issues of unjustified taxation – are the source of ongoing concerns that threaten the existence of the community and the churches”.

The report also called for an “urgent need to protect Christian communities and our places of worship extend throughout the West Bank, where settler attacks increasingly target our churches, people and properties”.

On Wednesday, a senior Palestinian church body condemned Israeli restrictions that prevent teachers from the occupied West Bank from reaching schools in occupied East Jerusalem, warning that Christian education is under direct attack.

The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine said Israeli authorities have sharply limited work permits for West Bank teachers, disrupting lessons and denying hundreds of students their right to education.

Altar boys carry candles as Christian worshippers attend a Christmas service at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in the Old City of Gaza City on January 7, 2026. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) — Altar boys carry candles as Christian worshippers attend a service at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in the Old City of Gaza City on January 7, 2026 [Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP]

The committee rejected arbitrary and systematic measures imposed by the Israeli occupation, saying they have hit Palestinian schools across Jerusalem, with Christian institutions particularly affected. It said the restrictions have delayed the start of the second semester and paralysed the education process.

According to the committee, Israel’s permit regime and military checkpoints have become the main tools used to block teachers from reaching classrooms, restrict movement and weaken educational institutions. It said these practices amount to collective punishment and reflect a policy of racial discrimination prohibited under international law.

Church officials said Israeli authorities have suspended the permits of dozens of teachers outright while slashing the number of days others are allowed to work. They said at least 171 teachers and staff have been affected.

The committee warned that the targeting of Christian schools forms part of a broader Israeli policy aimed at undermining Palestinian education and eroding the Palestinian Christian presence in Jerusalem.

It said the measures are designed to exhaust teachers and students alike, weaken community life and entrench Israeli control over the city at the expense of its Indigenous Christian population.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/18/jerusalem-patriarch-churches-say-christian-zionism-threatens-christianity

The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem have issued a statement rejecting Christian Zionism and warning against unauthorized "representation" of Christians in the Holy Land.

https://t.co/uI1klFWE4c

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

"These shameful tactics are part of the relentless campaign by Israeli authorities to unilaterally prevent UNRWA from executing its #UNGA mandate in occupied East Jerusalem, which does not fall under Israeli sovereignty. The application of Israeli law therein is illegal. In October 2025, the @CIJ_ICJ ruled that Israel is obliged to facilitate relief provided by UNRWA. And yet, the present actions represent the very opposite." Roland Friedrich

Roland Friedrich

@GRFriedrich, Director of UNRWA Affairs for the West Bank, including East Jerusalem

The @UN footprint in occupied East Jerusalem is shrinking fast.

Yesterday, in a disgraceful move, Israeli security personnel forcibly entered the UNRWA Jerusalem Health Centre, demanding the removal of UN signage. The Jerusalem Health Centre has been supported over decades by member states, many of whom have visited the premises. Later on the same day, a temporary closure order was issued against the Health Centre, closing it for the next thirty days. It may never open again.

Simultaneously, @UNRWA has received notifications from utility providers of impending severance of electricity and water supplies to multiple facilities across #EastJerusalem. These buildings include schools, health centres, and other critical service points.

It is not possible to operate humanitarian services without electricity and water.

Yesterday's developments follow the December 2025 amendments made to the anti-UNRWA Knesset laws. These shameful tactics are part of the relentless campaign by Israeli authorities to unilaterally prevent UNRWA from executing its #UNGA mandate in occupied East Jerusalem, which does not fall under Israeli sovereignty. The application of Israeli law therein is illegal.

In October 2025, the @CIJ_ICJ ruled that Israel is obliged to facilitate relief provided by UNRWA. And yet, the present actions represent the very opposite. These amendments, if implemented, will signal the end of UNRWA’s decades-long operational presence in East Jerusalem.

https://x.com/GRFriedrich/status/2011123893335932983

Philippe Lazzarini @UNLazzarini: It was an honour to have a private audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV... I sought the Holy Father’s support to preserve UNRWA’s critical services, primarily in the area of education, public health & safety nets for Palestine Refugees in #Gaza & across the region until a just & fair political solution is in place.

Philippe Lazzarini

@UNLazzarini

It was an honour to have a private audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV.

I briefed him on the immense suffering endured by Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as well as on the political & financial challenges confronting @UNRWA.

I stressed that the attacks on UNRWA are an assault on the multilateral system & a defiance of international law with reverberations far beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I also stressed that bringing back to a learning environment the more than 600,000 girls & boys currently living in the rubble of Gaza should be our common priority to avoid a lost generation.

I sought the Holy Father’s support to preserve UNRWA’s critical services, primarily in the area of education, public health & safety nets for Palestine Refugees in #Gaza & across the region until a just & fair political solution is in place.

https://x.com/UNLazzarini/status/2010787468845728160

‘The [ISRAELI] settlers brought the violence’: the ethnic cleansing of a West Bank village... Ras ‘Ein al ‘Auja is a small community of about 135 families – and the only one remaining in this part of the Jordan valley

Israeli settler shepherd, escorted by a white truck with Israeli soldiers.

Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum in Ras 'Ein al 'Auja, West Bank

Wed 14 Jan 2026 01.00 EST

Five decades in the south Jordan valley were ending in a day, and Mahmoud Eshaq struggled to hold back his tears. The 55-year-old had not cried since he was a boy, but as he dismantled the family home and prepared to flee the village where his whole life had played out, he was overwhelmed by grief.

While Eshaq’s children loaded mattresses, a fridge, sacks of flour and suitcases of clothes into a truck, masked soldiers escorted a teenage Israeli shepherd down the main village road, where he posed for photos on his donkey, flashing a V sign.

The ethnic cleansing of Ras ‘Ein al ‘Auja was underway, and the men and boys who made life untenable for Palestinians here had come to celebrate.

Eshaq’s home, a community of about 135 families, was the largest and most established of the Bedouin villages dotted on hillsides in this part of the Jordan valley.

By the start of this year, it was also the only one left. A campaign of intensifying settler violence – arson, mass theft, beatings, intimidation and destruction of property – forced out village after village until their last remaining neighbours, in nearby Mu’arrajat, fled in July.

Israeli settlers now have full control of more than 250 sq km (100 sq miles) of land in this part of the occupied West Bank, where a decade ago only Bedouin herds grazed, said Dror Etkes, founder of settlement monitoring group Kerem Navot.

Palestinians have been forced out of this area, which the international community has earmarked as part of their future state.

“We were living here peacefully, but they made us into an enemy. The settlers brought the violence,” Eshaq said. “I haven’t cried my whole life, but this morning I was crying. This is a terrible day for us.”

He grew up gazing across the Jordan river at mountains rising sharply toward white hilltop towns, and splashing in the wadi where his children and grandchildren later played. At night the clear desert skies are crowded with stars.

The bedouin families who live there are descendants of refugees forced out of the Naqab, or Negev, in what is now Israel, in 1948... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/14/settlers-violence-ethnic-cleansing-west-bank-village

"Almost all of those killed or who die from the cold are forcibly displaced Palestinians whose homes were destroyed by Israeli bombardment, as the Israeli occupation continues to block the entry of caravans and reconstruction materials." Maha Hussaini

Maha Hussaini

@MahaGaza

As a violent windstorm has battered Gaza since yesterday evening, a wall collapsed on a displaced family in western Gaza City overnight, killing two Palestinians: 72-year-old Muhammad Hamouda and 40-year-old Doaa Hamouda. Several others were injured.

This morning, a one-year-old baby died from the cold in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

Almost all of those killed or who die from the cold are forcibly displaced Palestinians whose homes were destroyed by Israeli bombardment, as the Israeli occupation continues to block the entry of caravans and reconstruction materials.

https://x.com/MahaGaza/status/2010989159192711228/photo/2

Israel poised to start construction of bypass through heart of West Bank: Road project, part of blueprint for new illegal settlement in E1 area east of Jerusalem, is considered a tool of annexation

Bedouin houses in the E1 area. If the new Israeli settlement is built, it will in effect sever the north and south of the occupied West Bank for Palestinians. Photograph: Jim Hollander/EPA

Emma Graham-Harrison

Tue 13 Jan 2026 04.37 EST

The road is a key part of the blueprint for a vast illegal new settlement in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, which would fragment the occupied West Bank. The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the plans were intended to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.

Designed as a sealed transit corridor for Palestinian vehicles, the bypass will provide Israel with a pretext to bar Palestinians from existing roads in the planned settlement area, where only Israeli vehicles will be permitted.

The bypass was nicknamed “sovereignty road” when initial construction was approved in 2020 by the then defence minister, Naftali Bennett, who celebrated the project’s role as a tool of annexation. “We’re applying sovereignty in deeds, not words,” he said at the time.

The current defence minister, Israel Katz, said last year that road construction and settlement expansion would strengthen Israel’s “hold” on the occupied West Bank.

The E1 area... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/13/israel-start-construction-bypass-west-bank-illegal-settlement

“Since the start of the cease-fire” ... GAZA. The so called peace plan is allowing Israel to "finish the job": 450 killed; 2,500 structures destroyed; lifesaving aid blocked.

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

“Since the start of the cease-fire”

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt

@FranceskAlbs

GAZA. The so called peace plan is allowing Israel to "finish the job": 450 killed; 2,500 structures destroyed; lifesaving aid blocked. The human rights movement will not allow those responsible to run away from justice. It is not matter of if. It's matter of when.

@ICC

@CIJ_ICJ

https://x.com/FranceskAlbs/status/2010986593155207386

“From tourism to education to business, Americans have profited enormously from the open global order that international law has enabled. Trump’s return to a world of power politics would mean a more circumscribed and impoverished America.” What would happen if every state acted like Donald Trump’s America? by Kenneth Roth

In a might-makes-right world, US allies, not to mention the emerging powers of the global south, would begin to hedge their bets in dangerous ways

Kenneth Roth in The Guardian

14 Jan 2026

What is wrong with resurrecting the prerogative of major powers to claim a sphere of influence in which they dictate and others must follow? That idea informs the “Donroe Doctrine” behind the US invasion of Venezuela to seize Nicolás Maduro. Donald Trump seems to believe that, as the world’s strongest military power, the United States should be allowed to invade other countries at will. Trump’s homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, says “the real world” is “governed by strength”, by “power”, so we should get used to it.

There is a beguiling simplicity to this abandonment of the norms long designed to govern the behavior of states big and small. China has touted it as the reality that its Asian neighbors must live with. Russia, a third-tier power by comparison but still a nuclear-armed regional heavyweight, has periodically treated the boundaries of post-Soviet states as mere suggestions. But do we really want to return to the law of the jungle in which the guy with the biggest stick calls the shots?

Trump’s distaste for any constraints on US power did not emerge in a vacuum. The US government has long considered international law to be what Lilliputians use to restrain Gulliver. That wariness lies behind, for example, Washington’s reluctance to accept international standards that most others view as benign, such as the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions (articulating modern standards for warfare and ratified by 175 states), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the US is the only nation in the world not to have ratified it) or the Law of the Sea Treaty (171 state parties). Joining the international criminal court (ICC) is deemed beyond the pale.

To some extent, spheres of influence have long existed. The United States has dominated the western hemisphere, while China held significant sway in parts of Asia and Russia in the countries of the former Soviet Union. On occasion those big powers flexed their military muscles without regard to international law – the United States to invade Iraq, for example, Russia to seize chunks of Ukraine and Georgia, China to fence off much of the South China Sea. But these forays have been exceptions, justified with allusions to Saddam’s supposed weapons of mass destruction, Putin’s stated fear of Nato expansion or China’s historical territorial claims. Trump is proposing a more unabashed return to great-power spheres of influence enforced largely by coercion.

In the past, the US government at least nominally portrayed its dominance as aimed at upholding democracy and the rule of law. Despite the many exceptions, Washington spent enough time promoting a rights-based world order that its hegemonic role seemed more palatable. Under Trump, that is all history... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/14/trump-might-makes-right-world

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