(RNS) — On Palm Sunday last month, Israel blocked the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, along with the official guardian of the church and two priests, from entering Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites for Christianity.

The incident, which drew international condemnation, marked the first time in centuries that officials from the Roman Catholic Church were prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday Mass at the church, which holds the tomb where Christians believe Jesus rose on Easter.

Israel said it blocked their entrance for security reasons due to the Iran war and later apologized. But the incident, described as a “grave precedent,” is not novel in a city that has witnessed a spike in anti-Christian attacks in recent years.

The following day, (March 30), the Jerusalem-based Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue released its 2025 annual report on attacks against Christians in East Jerusalem and Israel. The report highlights a 40% spike in documented cases of attacks on Christians in 2025, compared to 2024.

The report from the inter-religious Rossing organization documents 155 incidents against Christians in 2025. Physical assaults — such as spitting, hitting and pepper spraying — were the most prevalent, accounting for 39% of the recorded incidents. In all, there were 52 attacks on church properties (including spitting on churches, graffiti, trespassing, damaging statues, arson and stone and garbage throwing), 28 incidents of verbal harassment and 14 instances of defacing public signs containing Christian content.

Christian holidays, especially around the time of Easter, have become sources of tension. Due to concerns of overcrowding, police have tightened their security during events such as the Holy Fire ceremony, held on the Saturday before Orthodox Easter, the holiest day of the year in the Orthodox Church. In recent years, police have erected several checkpoints at gates throughout the Christian Quarter. Worshippers report difficulties reaching their ceremonies or being outright denied access to these places — infringing on their freedom of movement, religion and right to worship.

Bishop Atallah Hanna, a prominent Jerusalem-based Christian Orthodox priest, says that these attacks and racist provocations are neither new nor unusual: “For years we as priests and fellow nuns have been targets of these assaults, which have included being on the receiving end of spitting, cursing, and other forms of insults.”

Hanna noted that Christian sites and symbols, like the cross, the holy symbol for Christians, are also targets of attacks. “The attacks come from radical racists who don’t have any respect or understanding of interfaith relations and only show racism and hatred toward our Palestinian people, whether Muslims or Christians.”

The Rossing Center identifies the spitting perpetrators as Orthodox Jews, religious Zionists and students at prominent Jewish seminaries in Jerusalem.

In addition to the Rossing Center’s report, the Religious Freedom Data Center, a hotline tracking attacks against Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem, released its 2025 report summarizing the anti-Christian incidents. The RFDC recorded 181 incidents of harassment in 2025, including spitting, verbal abuse, vandalism and physical violence.

More than 80% of the reported incidents occurred in Jerusalem, with 150 in Jerusalem’s holy city. The Armenian Quarter bore the brunt of the attacks — 43 incidents of harassment were reported there in 2025.

A 2025 Rossing report of Jewish attitudes toward Christians found that 3.7% of Jews in Israel express support for those who spit at Christians, with 2.5% admitting they would do this. Support for spitting increased to 19 percent among Orthodox Jews, with 12% saying that they would spit. For Jewish Israelis ages 18 to 24, 12% said they support spitting and would spit themselves.

“According to the testimonies we collected during our conversations, priests and nuns living in certain areas of Jerusalem, such as the Armenian Quarter and Mount Zion in the Old City, now face an almost certain risk of harassment each time they step outside,” the report states. “This raises serious concerns about the safety of religious figures and their ability to perform their duties without fear of intimidation or harm.”

This trajectory of documented attacks points to an alarming increase in harassment against Christians, underscoring the urgent work needed to safeguard religious freedom, protect vulnerable religious communities and promote constructive interfaith engagement. World leaders around the world need to strongly urge Israeli officials to take this issue seriously, hold perpetrators accountable and end their policies of turning a blind eye to the rising attacks against Christians.

(Daoud Kuttab is the senior communications officer of the World Evangelical Alliance. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)