Israel 'failing to stop attacks on Christians'

The Israeli authorities are growing increasingly intolerant of Christianity in the country, responding inadequately to violent attacks against the faith by Jewish extremists, a senior Vatican official in Jerusalem has warned.

Police inaction and an educational culture that encourages Jewish children to treat Christians with contempt has made life increasingly "intolerable" for many, said Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Custodian of the Holy Land.

Fr Pizzaballa's intervention, unusually outspoken for a senior Catholic churchman, came after pro-settler extremists attacked a Trappist monastery in the town of Latroun. The door of the monastery was set on fire and its walls were covered with anti-Christian graffiti that denounced Christ as a "monkey".

The incident is the latest in a series of acts of arson and vandalism in places of worship. Fr Pizzaballa, the head of the Franciscan Order in the Holy Land, and fellow senior clergymen of other denominations have criticised the failure of police to identify the culprits.

But the most important issue they say Israel has failed to address is the practice of some ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools that teach children it is a doctrinal obligation to abuse anyone in Holy Orders in public.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews, including children, spit at members of the clergy on a daily basis, Fr Pizzaballa said.

"Sadly, what happened in Latroun is only another in a long series of attacks against Christians and their places of worship," Christian leaders, including Fr Pizzaballa, said in a statement. "What kind of 'teaching of contempt' for Christians is being communicated in their schools and in their homes?"