The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine stated in a press release that Israel has destroyed the Christian presence in Palestine and continues to bomb churches and their institutions in its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
The statement came in response to claims made by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during his speech at the United Nations, in which he said that Israel is the only state protecting Christians in the Middle East.
The committee clarified that Palestinian Christians made up 12.5% of Palestine’s population before the 1948 Nakba, and today only 1.2% remain in historic Palestine, with just 1% in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967. It emphasized that this decline is a direct result of Israeli ethnic cleansing and forced displacement.
It also confirmed that since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, 44 Palestinian Christians have been martyred—some directly due to bombing and others indirectly due to the harsh humanitarian conditions, including lack of food and medicine.