Israeli Jews volunteer during Sukkot to protect Christians in Jerusalem’s Old City
Summary
More than 140 Jewish Israeli volunteers spent part of Sukkot accompanying Christian clergy and visitors through Jerusalem’s Old City. The initiative, organized by scholar Yisca Harani, aims to deter, document, and report incidents including spitting, verbal harassment, defaced crosses and church signs. Participants say the misconduct comes from a small radical fringe and is not representative of Judaism. Christian and Jewish participants described the effort as a way to protect worship, build trust, and promote peaceful coexistence among the Old City’s religious communities.
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Biblical Context
The article concerns religious harassment, protection of worshippers, peaceful treatment of people from another religious community, and opposition to contempt or mistreatment. These subjects are meaningfully addressed by Scripture. Leviticus instructs Israel not to mistreat the resident foreigner and to love the stranger as oneself; this provides a direct ethical principle relevant to treatment of Christian visitors. Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:12 supports treating others as one would want to be treated, while Romans 12:18 calls believers to pursue peace where possible. Hebrews 13:2 commends hospitality toward strangers, which thematically relates to welcoming pilgrims and clergy. These passages support the article’s moral and social relevance, but they do not identify the reported incidents as fulfillment of a biblical prophecy. No specific prophetic passage is reasonably established by this localized civic development.
Biblical Sources
Scripture references supporting the biblical context above.
The instruction to show hospitality to strangers provides a broader biblical principle relevant to welcoming pilgrims and clergy rather than treating them with hostility.
Israel is commanded not to mistreat the foreigner residing among them and to love the stranger as oneself. This directly supports concern about harassment of Christian visitors and the call to treat them with dignity.
Jesus teaches reciprocal moral treatment—doing to others what one would want done to oneself—which supports opposition to harassment and contempt toward religious visitors.
Paul urges believers, as far as it depends on them, to live peaceably with everyone. This relates to the volunteers’ stated aim of reducing hostility and promoting peaceful coexistence.
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