2,000-Year-Old Churches Threatened

Palestinian Christian leaders are sounding the alarm that systematic Israeli policies—from frozen church bank accounts to military operations in Gaza—threaten to erase Christianity’s birthplace from the Holy Land entirely.

Story Snapshot

Israeli authorities have frozen Orthodox Patriarchate bank accounts and imposed property taxes on church lands, strangling Christian institutions financially
Approximately 1,000 Christians remain in Gaza amid ongoing military operations, with leaders warning the community faces total extinction
Settlement expansion near Jericho and throughout the West Bank encroaches on historic church properties, violating longstanding Status Quo agreements
Christian emigration from Bethlehem and the West Bank has accelerated dramatically since October 2023, threatening 2,000 years of continuous presence

Financial Warfare Against Ancient Churches

Israeli authorities have launched unprecedented financial attacks against the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, according to Ramzi Khouri, head of the Palestinian Authority’s Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs. Bank accounts serving Christian institutions have been frozen, and new property taxes imposed on church lands that historically enjoyed protected status. These measures cripple the churches’ ability to provide spiritual services, maintain holy sites, and support dwindling Christian communities. The financial strangulation violates the Status Quo agreements dating to 1852 that guaranteed protections for Christian institutions in Jerusalem. For believers who value religious freedom, this government overreach against churches should raise serious concerns about targeting faith communities through bureaucratic weaponry.

Gaza Christians Face Total Eradication

Reverend Munther Isaac of Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Church warns that Gaza’s approximately 1,000 Christians—70 percent Greek Orthodox—face complete extinction amid military operations that entered their 670th day by August 2025. Christian homes have been damaged or destroyed, isolating families from their churches and each other. The community’s ability to gather for worship, celebrate religious holidays, or maintain their historic presence has collapsed. Palestinian sources report over 51,200 deaths in Gaza since October 2023, with Christians bearing their share of the devastation. This erasure of Christianity from its ancient homeland represents an irreversible loss of religious heritage that should trouble any American who values preserving faith traditions against government force.

Settlement Expansion Swallows Church Lands

New Israeli settlement outposts established near Jericho over the past two years threaten Orthodox Christian properties at Deir Hijleh, part of broader settlement expansion throughout the West Bank. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s policies enable these encroachments on church lands, altering Jerusalem’s character and squeezing Palestinian Christians from ancestral territories. The E1 settlement plan east of Jerusalem further fragments Christian communities from holy sites. Checkpoints and military zones restrict Christians’ access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other pilgrimage destinations, even during major holidays like Easter. These restrictions violate the principle that religious sites should remain accessible to believers, regardless of political circumstances—a concept conservatives understand when government barriers block faithful Americans from worshiping freely.

Mass Exodus Empties Christianity’s Birthplace

Christian emigration from the West Bank has multiplied since October 2023, with Bethlehem’s tourism-dependent economy collapsing and families fleeing violence and economic hardship. The Kairos Palestine organization, representing Palestinian Christian leaders, released their Kairos II document in November 2025 warning that systematic policies amount to ethnic cleansing and genocide against Christians. Church leaders have appealed to global Christian bodies to intervene, arguing that Western churches’ silence enables the eradication of Christianity where it began. The International Criminal Court issued warrants for Israeli officials in November 2025, though enforcement remains uncertain. If current trends continue unchecked, the 2,000-year Christian witness in the Holy Land may disappear within years, erasing living links to Christianity’s origins and demonstrating how government policies can systematically eliminate religious minorities.

Christians in the Holy Land Are Being Ethnically Cleansed | Jason Jones https://t.co/OL7aipeQvI

— Marjorie Thomas (@WashingtonDC99) January 21, 2026

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the Palestinian Authority for Christian decline, but Jerusalem’s church leaders unanimously reject this claim, pointing instead to occupation policies as the root cause. The contrast between narratives highlights how governments deflect responsibility for policies that squeeze religious minorities. American conservatives who champion religious liberty domestically should recognize the pattern when Christians abroad face government-imposed restrictions, financial pressure, and demographic engineering that threatens their very existence. The potential extinction of Holy Land Christianity represents not just a humanitarian crisis, but the loss of irreplaceable spiritual heritage at the faith’s geographic and historical heart.