HPCCA Accuses Israel of Systematic Erasure of Christian Presence in Palestine

By Edward Makuzva

The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs (HPCCA) in Palestine has issued a strongly worded condemnation against what it describes as Israel’s deliberate and systematic campaign to eliminate the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

The committee says this campaign, ongoing for decades, has reduced the once-flourishing Christian community in the occupied Palestinian territories from 12.5 percent of the population before 1948 to barely 1 percent today.

Ambassador Tamer Almassri, speaking on behalf of the committee, attributed this decline to Israel’s entrenched policies of ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, land confiscation, and systematic repression.

He pointed to the displacement of nearly 90,000 Palestinian Christians during the 1948 Nakba, the forced closure of approximately 30 churches, and the deaths of 44 Christians in Gaza amid ongoing bombardments as undeniable evidence of this strategy.

“The world must understand that the erasure of Palestine’s Christian community is not an accident of war or a side-effect of conflict—it is a calculated and ongoing policy,” ambassador Almassri said.

Historic and Recent AttacksThe HPCCA drew attention to direct attacks on Christian holy sites and institutions.

The Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza, the third-oldest functioning church in the world, was bombed, killing worshippers who had sought sanctuary there.

Similarly, the Catholic Holy Family Church suffered strikes that claimed civilian lives.

Other faith-based institutions, including Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital and the Orthodox Arab Cultural and Social Center, have also been targeted, leaving communities stripped of healthcare, shelter, and cultural identity.

Jerusalem and Bethlehem Under SiegeAmbassador Almassri revealed that the situation is equally dire in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, both central to global Christianity.

In Jerusalem, Israel has imposed heavy financial and legal pressures on church institutions, freezing Orthodox Patriarchate bank accounts, slapping exorbitant taxes on church properties, and seizing Armenian church lands.

“These measures, the HPCCA says, are aimed at strangling the Christian presence economically while paving the way for settlement expansion.”

Bethlehem, revered worldwide as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, is being “choked,” ambassador Almassri said, by settlement construction, military checkpoints, and the concrete separation wall.

Lands historically owned by Palestinian Christians are being confiscated and annexed, leaving families dispossessed in their ancestral city”, Ambassador Almassri explained.

Israel’s “False Narrative”The HPCCA dismissed recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations General Assembly, where he claimed that Israel protects Christians as “cynical propaganda.”

According to Ambassador Almassri, these statements are intended to manipulate global opinion while masking policies that aim to erase Palestine’s indigenous Christian presence and replace it with a narrative of Israeli guardianship.

“This is hypocrisy at its worst,” the ambassador said. “You cannot bomb churches, displace congregations, and confiscate church lands while telling the world you are a protector of Christians.”

A Global Moral ObligationThe Palestinian leadership has framed the defense of Christian heritage in Palestine as a cause that transcends local politics.

The HPCCA urged the international community, including global churches, human rights organizations, and state actors, to recognize Israel’s actions as part of a broader pattern of persecution and displacement, and to take urgent measures to hold it accountable.

“The Christian presence in Palestine is not just a Palestinian matter,” he added.

“It is a universal matter of faith, history, human rights, and international law. To remain silent in the face of this erasure is to be complicit.”

The committee’s warning comes amid heightened concern from Christian leaders worldwide, who fear that if the current trajectory continues unchecked, the cradle of Christianity could one day be devoid of its indigenous believers.