JERUSALEM /PNN/

The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine warned Thursday that Israel has launched an “unprecedented and dangerous assault” on the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, accusing the government of freezing the church’s bank accounts, imposing what it called crippling and unjust taxes, and targeting church-owned lands for settlement expansion.

In a statement, committee head and PLO Executive Committee member Dr. Ramzi Khouri said the measures are part of a “calculated, systematic campaign” to weaken the church, cripple its ability to serve the faithful, and erode its spiritual, humanitarian and community role in the Holy Land.

“These are not mere administrative measures,” Khouri said. “They are a direct and blatant violation of the historic Status Quo, international law, and established agreements.”

The committee accused Israeli authorities of attempting to dismantle the Christian presence in Palestine, strip the land of its religious institutions, and reshape the identity of Jerusalem. It said the attacks go beyond financial measures, citing aggressive settlement expansion on lands belonging to the Orthodox Church around the Monastery of Saint Gerasimus near Jericho, where illegal outposts have been built in the past two years.

“These acts are part of a wider, systematic policy to diminish the Christian presence and obliterate its historic and religious landmarks,” the statement read.

Khouri appealed to global churches, Christian institutions, and people of conscience to mobilise politically, legally and through the media to defend the sanctity of the Church and safeguard its mission. “Silence at this moment will be interpreted as complicity,” he said.

The statement linked the measures to broader Israeli settlement activity, pointing to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s recent approval of thousands of new housing units in the “E1” area east of Jerusalem — a plan Palestinians and much of the international community say would sever the West Bank in two and make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.

“These attacks come amid ongoing war, genocide, and starvation in the Gaza Strip — now in its 670th day — and continued ethnic cleansing in the West Bank,” Khouri said. “The time to act is now.”