Cancelled tours, empty hotels: Israeli, Palestinian tourism reels as conflict escalates
Bethlehem/JerusalemReuters Early this month, the main square and streets around Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity were bustling with tourists. Now they are empty after a devastating attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas in Israel on 7th October. “Business is at a standstill since the war started,” said Essa Abu Dawoud, a tour guide in the […]
An American tourist is arrested for smashing ancient Roman statues at a museum in Israel
JerusalemAP Israeli police have arrested an American tourist at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem after he hurled works of art to the floor, defacing two second-century Roman statues. The vandalism late Thursday raised questions about the safety of Israel’s priceless collections and stirred concern about a rise in attacks on cultural heritage in Jerusalem. This image […]
Jews spitting on the ground beside Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land sparks outrage
JerusalemAP A video that shows ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on the ground beside a procession of foreign Christian worshipers carrying a wooden cross in the holy city of Jerusalem has ignited intense outrage and a flurry of condemnation in the Holy Land. The spitting incident, which the city’s minority Christian community lamented as the latest in […]
Holy Land: Church leaders plead with Israeli Government as anti-Christian incidents increase
MICHELE CHABIN, of Religion News Service, reports on the growing number of anti-Christian attacks…
Fighting to remain: After decades of struggle in Israel, dozens of African Hebrew Israelites face deportation
ILAN BEN ZION, of Associated Press, reports on challenges facing a group living in Israel who, while they do not consider themselves Jewish, claim an ancestral connection to Israel…
The “problem’ of where ancient Jerusalem was built gets thornier
RNS As tourism to Jerusalem rebounded from the pandemic last year, more than two million visitors came to see the Old City of Jerusalem’s gleaming stone walls and the attraction known as “the City of David”, and the large stone structure, standing opposite the Temple Mount, said to be the remnants of King David’s palace. […]
Jerusalem: In contested Old City, shrinking Armenian community fears displacement after land deal
ISABEL DEBRE, of Associated Press, reports on concerns among the Armenian community over their future in the city…
Thousands rally in Jerusalem in favour of planned judicial overhaul
JerusalemReuters Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Jerusalem on Thursday to show support for controversial planned legislation by the far-right coalition government which would see the country’s highest court stripped of much of its powers. Israelis remain polarised over the planned legislation that proponents say would restore balance to Israeli authorities and critics say […]
In pictures: Millions celebrate Orthodox Easter
Millions around the world celebrated Orthodox Easter last weekend. The celebrations and reflections are here captured in images by AP photographers… Men carry the “Epitaph,” the procession of Jesus’ funeral bier, into the sea in the town of Tolo, about 150 kilometres south-west of Athens, Greece, on Friday, 14th April, 2023. About 300 million Orthodox […]
Church under pressure: Holy Land Christians say attacks rising in far-right Israel
ISABEL DEBRE, of Associated Press, reports from Jerusalem…