Netanyahu blasts claim Israel is hostile to Christians as ‘incredible fabrication’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplays a series of recent documented anti-Christian incidents as isolated “aberrations” whose perpetrators have been punished, or in which the error has been rectified, touting Israel’s shared values and history with Christians and Christianity.
During an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” the premier is asked about a series of recent incidents that damaged Israel’s relations with Christians — including Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem being denied access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Easter, an IDF soldier smashing a Jesus statue in Lebanon, and an attack on a nun in Jerusalem’s Old City — and that some see as a “trend line of hostility to Christians.”
Netanyahu replies by calling that “one of those incredible fabrications,” saying Israel is the only place in the region where Christians have “thrived,” while in neighboring Arab countries “they’ve been squished, squashed, sometimes massacred.” He claims that while the West Bank Palestinian city of Bethlehem, Jesus’ birthplace, was 80% Christian when Israel controlled it, since it has been controlled by the Palestinian Authority, it has become “20% Christian, 80% Muslim.”
Asked if the series of incidents is all anomalies, the prime minister says: “These are not only anomalies. These are things that go contrary to our ethos, to our respect for Christianity.”
“But when that happens, okay, that guy, that soldier who did that, who, you know, violated — not violated but tore down a crucifix, he’s in jail. That guy who attacked a nun, he’s on trial,” he explains.
Regarding Pizzaballa, who was denied entry amid sweeping closures of Jerusalem’s holy sites due to gathering limits during the war with Iran, Netanyahu claims he “intervened immediately and opened the doors,” even though it took four days from the time the cardinal was blocked from reaching the church for Palm Sunday Mass until he was allowed to hold a limited prayer there.
“Israel is the one country in the Middle East that protects Christians, that values Christians, that embraces Christianity. We have common roots. We appreciate them. There’s an attempt not only to falsify our common history but also to falsify current events, to seize on these, you know, these aberrations, and pretend that this is Israeli policy. That’s ridiculous,” he concludes.
The remarks appear in an off-mic section of the interview that wasn’t aired and only appears in CBS’s full transcript.