Israeli incitement and Discrimination Against Palestinian Christians

It is often assumed that Israel's occupation of Palestine is a religious conflict between Muslims and Jews rather than a settler-colonial project intended to oppress and displace the indigenous Palestinian population. There are two critical and damaging consequences to this misinformed narrative: The first ignores the significant and vibrant Christian community that resides in Palestine and actively contributes to its social fabric, and the second oversimplifies the diversity of Palestinian society while purposefully manufacturing a false division between Muslims and Christians in a way that undermines their Palestinian national identity. Therefore, it is imperative to acknowledge that Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike confront similar forms of discrimination at the hands of the Israeli occupation.

By imposing oppressive measures, the occupation does not discriminate based on religious affiliation; instead, it targets individuals solely based on their Palestinian and non-Jewish identity. Incitement against Christians, therefore, is part of the provocations against all the Palestinian people. With Israeli violence and incitement on the rise, all Palestinians are becoming increasingly targeted with policies that perpetuate the negation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. The international community usually overlooks incitement and acts of violence against Palestinians by Israeli ultra-nationalists.

In occupied Jerusalem, for example, this culture of impunity fosters an environment conducive to discrimination, thereby posing a grave threat to the survival of Christianity in Palestine, the birthplace of Jesus. Such incitement is institutionalised by the State of Israel through racist legislation, most notably the Jewish Nation-State Law that reserves the right to self-determination exclusively for the Jewish citizens of Israel. These laws are blatantly discriminatory and contradict 21st-century principles of justice and equality.