Jerusalem: Israeli journalist dressed as Christian priest spat at by settlers 

Shocking evidence of the rise in the number of attacks on Palestinian Christians by Israeli settlers has been captured on film by an Israeli reporter who went undercover as a priest and walked along the streets of occupied Jerusalem.

Channel 13’s Yossi Eli wanted to see for himself the spiralling hate crimes against Christians. Within five minutes of setting out with a Franciscan clergyman, Father Alberto, Eli was spat at five times by Jewish Israeli settlers.

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The footage of the abuse by the settlers was uploaded by Eli on Twitter along with comments where he dismissed attempts to downplay the spiralling of hate crimes against Christians.

“The justification of some Jewish groups for hate crimes is that they are ‘mentally ill’,” said Eli. “So no. Our investigation proved that the attacks are really not from the mentally ill, but people with a clear opinion who simply hate something they are not. Brainwash them that Jesus is bad. Young extremists, children, and most sadly soldiers, the ‘salt of the earth’, express their hatred towards Christianity.”

Eli asked what the reaction would be if Jews were spat at instead of Christians. “Just think what the reaction of those Jews would have been if a Christian had spat on them in Europe,” he said, adding that being a priest for a day “was very difficult to digest.”

OPINION: Israel is targeting Palestinian Christians

Eli’s investigation comes against the backdrop of a worrying escalation in hate crimes against the indigenous Christian communities of Palestine. The Vatican’s custodian of the Holy Land, Father Francesco Patton, blamed Israel’s politicians for the rise in anti-Christian attacks by Jewish settlers.

According to a report in Haaretz, Patton mentioned the desecration of a Lutheran cemetery, the vandalising of a Maronite prayer room and the spraying of “death to Christians” on Armenian property, all within the space of a few weeks. He also noted “the responsibility of the leaders, of those who have power.”

In a previous warning about the attacks on Christians in Palestine, Patton said that they face the “threat of extinction” from “radical” Israeli groups.

READ: Israel settler smashes stained-glass windows of Christian site