The Israeli soldier who destroyed Jesus' statue in South Lebanon is not just one bad apple

The image of an Israeli army soldier destroying a statue of Jesus in South Lebanon with a sledgehammer garnered international media attention. However, it did not receive sufficient outrage, given its wider significance in relation to the attitude of Israelis to other religions and their symbols.

Israel claims it respects all religions and that Israeli citizens who are Christians are safer within its boundaries than Christian Palestinians in the occupied territories. 

Meanwhile, Israel is conducting an illegal war in Lebanon and before it committed a genocide in Gaza. Its occupation of Lebanese land is illegal, and it has continuously breached both a long-term ceasefire agreed on 27 November 2024 and also the current one agreed on 15 April 2026.

Israel has not respected a single ceasefire agreed in Gaza or Lebanon since 7 October, treating them as: the other side ceases, it fires. Its continued impunity for these breaches goes some way to explaining them.

Israel claims that its war in Lebanon is with Hezbollah, a Muslim Shia group, which it wants the Lebanese government to disarm. However, the image of the destroyed Jesus statue, proves its war is with the Lebanese people of all religions, not Hezbollah, as its war in Gaza was with all Palestinians and not just Hamas.

Israel has continued to wipe villages in southern Lebanon off the map, forcing the displacement not just of Muslims but also Christians. It has also damaged or destroyed seven churches, including Our Lady of Salvation Church, which was destroyed in an airstrike.

Its attack on bridges over the Litani River impacts all Lebanese, Christian, Sunni and Shia.

So what message does it send to Lebanon, a country with the highest proportion of Christians in the Middle East?

Israel’s attack on Christians and their holy places is not restricted to Lebanon. Its attacks on the tiny Christian Palestinian community in Gaza during the genocide have been well documented. This included the shelling of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza in July 2025, which killed three people and injured 10 others.

In an earlier incident in Gaza, a mother and daughter were killed on 16 December 2023. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem reported that both were killed by a sniper when they were on their way to the nuns’ convent that is part of the parish complex. “One was killed while she tried to carry the other to safety,” the statement said. The Christian population of Gaza numbered about 1,000 before 7 October.

Even before 7 October, Israel’s attitude to Christians, who it claims have left the occupied territories because of the Palestinian Authority’s rule, has been repressive. Who can forget the Israeli police’s attack on the funeral of US American citizen and journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral in East Jerusalem, in which pallbearers were mercilessly attacked as they carried her coffin to burial in her home city.

Israel also regularly bans Christian Palestinians from visiting their holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, even on major Christian occasions such as Easter and Christmas. Before the current Gaza conflict, Christians from Gaza were regularly banned from visiting their holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Earlier this year, Israel banned the Catholic cardinal from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre until a Netanyahu U-turn after he faced an international outcry about this decision.

On Friday, 11 July 2025, settlers set fire to land belonging to residents, a part of growing settler violence which also saw a fire break out behind the historic Al-Khader church, the parish priest of Taybeh’s Latin parish of Christ the Redeemer told Vatican News.

Even earlier than that, protests erupted after an arson attack on an historic church in Galilee in 2016.

There also exists a culture of spitting on Christian priests and nuns or near churches, which appears to have developed as part of the upbringing of young Orthodox Jewish Israelis.

For some, this even extends to what they should say when seeing a church; the former spokesperson for MK Limor Son Har-Melech, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said: “Blessed is He who has patience for those who violate His will,” which Yered described as a “blessing that praises God for not immediately punishing idol worshipers for their wicked deeds.”

Taking all of the above into account, it is possible to conclude that rather than protecting Christians, whether in Lebanon, Palestine or anywhere else, Jewish Israelis have shown disregard for them, which poses the following question: where do the world’s Christians stand on this demonisation and lack of respect for Christianity and Christians?

In particular, considering that Palestine is the birthplace of Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, why aren’t they raising their condemnation of not only the Jesus statue in Lebanon but of Israel and Israel's treatment of Christians and their holy places and symbols? Where is the condemnation and actions against Israeli practices and support for the remaining Christians from Christian Zionists, particularly in the United States? There are roughly 25 million of these in the US who support Israel to the hilt, but few, if any, who stand with their brothers or sisters.

It seems hypocritical to say the least to stand with Ben Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and Netanyahu and press the US Government to fund Israel’s genocide against Muslims and Christians while abandoning their brother and sister Christians and leaving them to their fate. Surely, that is not the Christian thing to do.

Professor Kamel Hawwash is a politician, writer and analyst.

Follow Kamel on Instagram: @kamelhawwash

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.