The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine has strongly condemned the assault carried out by a group of Israeli settlers against Saint James Armenian Monastery in Jerusalem. The attack included spitting at the monastery’s entrance and throwing stones, in what the Committee described as a further provocation targeting the Christian presence and its holy sites in Jerusalem.
The Committee affirmed that this assault forms part of a continuing pattern of settler attacks against churches, mosques, clergy, and sacred sites. It stressed that such repeated violations reflect the accelerating settlement policies aimed at imposing new realities on the ground across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, amid the ongoing military aggression on Gaza—constituting a blatant breach of international law and the guaranteed right to freedom of worship.
The Committee further noted that the attack coincided with ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people, which resulted in the killing of 18 Palestinians in Gaza. It emphasized that this reflects a sustained and systematic pattern of violations targeting both the Palestinian people and their holy sites, underscoring the gravity of the deteriorating situation across the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The Committee called on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities by exerting immediate pressure on the occupying authorities to halt settler attacks and ongoing violations against the Palestinian people and their holy sites, to ensure accountability for those responsible, and to provide international protection for Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, recognizing them as an integral part of the world’s religious and cultural heritage.
