Can History Lessons Prevent Hate Crimes Against Christian Minorities in Israel?

By Maryam Younnes

This January, I received the news about the vandalism of the Lebanese Maronite church in my community in Ma’alot located in northern Israel. A week before this vandalism took place, a Protestant cemetery was desecrated and vandalized by two Jewish youths wearing kippah and only last Thursday, yet another ultra-orthodox Jew vandalized a major Catholic church in Jerusalem. These reprehensible events are, unfortunately, taking place during a drastic change in the Israeli government and an increase in nationalistic discourse from elected party officials.

Personally, I refuse to believe the narrative of a select few accusing Israeli officials attempting to chase away Christians from Jerusalem or from the state of Israel. Indeed, the numbers seem to contradict this. An Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics report released in December 2022, reported a 2% growth in the number of Christians in 2021.

From a personal point of view, as a Lebanese Maronite who grew up in Israel, I concede that the state is not doing enough to prevent hate crimes against Christian minorities done mostly by Ultra- orthodox Jews. But unlike in other countries in the Middle East, Christians living in places like Jerusalem, Haifa, Nazareth, Shfaram, and other cities and villages are safe to freely practice their faith and display religious symbols in multiethnic public places. In Jordan, for example, a statue of Jesus Christ was removed from a majority Christian village last month, due to extremists’ disapproval. However, regardless of the freedom of religious expression afforded to Christians in Israel, I believe that in times of conflict such as these days, Christian communities are exposed to the violence of ignorant extremists.

A hate crime, according to the American Psychological Association is “a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity… an extreme type of prejudice, more likely to be used in the context of political and social change.” There is no more accurate definition to these specific attacks than this – an extreme political change that created a moment of chaos and fertile land to extremist behavior. However, the discourse that is important to be raised now more than ever is HOW will Israel prevent these attacks and reduce prejudice against Christians as one of the minorities in the region. In recent years, the media coverage of Israel predominantly revolved around the conflict between Muslims and Jews (such as the al-Aqsa conflict), while us Christians are falling between two stools and are almost forgotten.

As a huge believer in education being a tool to fight illiteracy and ignorance, it is crucial to encourage the state of Israel (and other states in the region) to include the history of Christianity as part of their schoolbooks. As a Lebanese Maronite child growing up and studying in a Jewish state school, I do not recall learning or hearing about Christianity and its huge influence in the region (unlike in Christian private schools here in Israel). Official history lessons started with the first World War and ended with Israel’s Independence Day and consecutive wars. To verify, I consulted my sister (currently a high school student) and was informed that they also were taught on the history of the Roman Empire through the lens of the political relations between Rome and Judaea, with no connection to Christianity! As long as we, Christians, are not included in the books students in Israel (and in Muslim majority countries) study at school, we will keep facing hate crimes and discrimination during conflicted times. Even worse, we will be seen as foreigners in our own land.

As for the international community, it is essential for them to understand that for Middle Easterners, religion is a way of self-identification. It is as raw and deep as that. Being Christian, Muslim, Jew, Druze etc. is not just faith. It is an identity, history, sect and culture. You can discover a person’s cultural background just by knowing their name. If you are named Charbel, you are probably Maronite; if you are named Akiva, you are Jewish; if you are named Zeina, you are Sunni Muslim, but Zainab is a Shia Muslim. Understanding this cultural concept by introducing more education on Christianity in Israeli schools can help us overcome cultural misunderstandings and learn about each other’s faith.

Maryam Younnes is a Lebanese Maronite living in Israel. She is a Master’s student of Political Communication at Bar-Ilan University in Tel-Aviv.

The views expressed in this op-ed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of SyriacPress.