The footage of an Israeli soldier attacking a Christian statue depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon with a hammer was difficult for the Israeli political establishment to ignore. The country has long tried to position itself as a protector of Christians, and it is associated with the powerful Christian Zionist movement in the United States.
But as Israel is losing support in the US and the West for its genocidal war in Gaza and attacks in Lebanon and Iran, support among Christians has also waned – even before the video of the desecration of the Christian statue emerged.
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Responding to the footage on Monday, a day after it first went viral, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed his regularly repeated line that Israel respects all religions, even as critics say his government regularly does the opposite.
But, after even some of Israel’s supporters expressed anger over the soldier’s actions, Israel announced on Tuesday that he and another soldier who was filming him had been jailed for 30 days. Six other soldiers have been called for questioning.
The decision to take action against the two soldiers is significant because it stands in sharp contrast to the Israeli military investigation into the violations committed by the soldiers, which found they were not at fault. Indeed, no Israeli soldier has been accused of killing a Palestinian this decade, despite thousands of people being killed even outside the context of the Gaza war, including the 2022 killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shirin Abu Aqleh, herself a Christian, in the occupied West Bank.
Yossi Mekelberg, a senior adviser at Chatham House, said it was important for the Israeli government to ensure its response to the attack on the Jesus statue was visible, especially in light of the significant role Israel’s Christian supporters – including the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee – play in the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Those supporters often justify their support for Israel by relying on Christian Zionist interpretations of the Bible and by emphasizing the “Judeo-Christian” value system and shared cultural heritage.
But official Israeli action in this case makes inaction in other cases all the more glaring.
“This (the attack on the statue of Jesus), and the attacks by settlers on mosques and the killing of Palestinians are all war crimes,” Mekelberg said. “The problem is that we don’t know how widespread it is. We only know about it because they filmed it.”
history of violence
Throughout much of the conflict in Gaza and Lebanon, observers and analysts have pointed to stark differences in Israeli government responses in terms of attacks on Christian symbols and places of worship and the large-scale destruction of Islamic sites.
In March, Netanyahu himself had to explain the decision to block the way for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to mark Palm Sunday, one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar. Before the end of the same day, Netanyahu posted on social media that there was “no malicious intent, only concern for his safety”.
Last July, Netanyahu apologized again after pressure from the Trump administration for attacking a third church in Gaza, killing three of the hundreds of people sheltering there and wounding several others, including a parish priest who regularly spoke to the late Pope Francis.
In a statement issued through his office, the Israeli Prime Minister claimed that he deeply regretted the attack on the church, which he described as an accident.
“Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. We share the grief of the families and the loyalists,” he said, without mentioning the approximately 60,000 men, women and Palestinian children his forces had killed by that point in the war.
Throughout the war, Israel’s defenders have emphasized the concept of Judeo-Christian values in an attempt to justify Israel’s attacks and its repeated breaking of international law. But evidence of a shared civilizational bond is called into question by attacks on Christian symbolism in places like Lebanon and Israel’s long-standing treatment of Palestinian Christians, who face the same dispossession and occupation as their Muslim neighbors.
“I think a lot of defenders of Israel in the West like to portray it as ‘us,’ as if ‘there’ is some kind of dark forest,” said H. A. Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and senior associate fellow at the Royal United Service Institute.
“So, they can make an excuse that the Israelis killed Arabs by the thousands,” Hellyer said. “They can also make excuses for killing Christians. But when you see Israeli soldiers destroying Christian symbols, it becomes much harder to defend those actions and to buck the growing trend of American supporters, both Democrats and Republicans, moving away from Israel.”
What’s next in Israel’s relations with Christians?
While the Israeli government has been keen to preserve evidence of the Jewish–Christian bond, complaints of persecution by Christian groups within Israel have been increasing, particularly with the growth in strength of the Israeli far right, including the government.
In 2025, the interreligious Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue recorded 155 incidents targeting Christians in Israel, a significant increase from the previous year. While physical attacks were the most common, comprising 39 percent of incidents, spitting, hitting and pepper spraying were also included.
Christian holidays, particularly those around Easter, have become a particular source of tension, the report said, with priests and nuns wearing visible Christian attire in West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem facing the risk of harassment every time they enter public spaces.
“We have entered a period of what (Australian genocide studies scholar) Dirk Moses called ‘permanent security,’ where anything different, anything that might be a threat, or even might be a threat in the future, has to be destroyed,” prominent Israeli sociologist Yehouda Shenhav-Shahrabani told Al Jazeera.
This difference is inherent in Christianity.
“It’s not about left or right,” Shenhav-Shahrbani explained. “This even extends to language. In everyday Hebrew, people refer to Jesus as Yeshua instead of Yeshua, which is a curse word, which is correct.”
He added, “This is common. This is how it is used in everyday media.” “If you start here, it doesn’t matter whether it’s stupidity or ignorance, it all leads to the same place.”
