by Rachel Hutson, Premier
Christians in Israel are experiencing rising levels of aggression towards them according to an organisation that tracks harrassment.
The Religious Freedom Data Center says there has been an increase in cases of believers in the Holy Land being abused, although the incidents do not amount to persecution.
Christians make up a small minority in the country’s population, around 2%. The main religious split is between Jews, which account for 73% of citizens and Muslims at 18%.
The Religious Freedom Data Center operates a ‘hot line’ to capture cases as well as employing a bank of 200 volunteers to help maintain it’s records. Its founder Yisca Harani told Premier Christian News why she began the work: “It is not that we did not know about the existence of an anti-Christian sentiment, but what bothered especially me as an activist, as an inter-religious activist and a Jewish faithful person, things like that would happen in my country.”
The Christian scholar says that because the episodes are not always violent, the police are often willing to ignore them.