This one is hard to read, but we need to know about it so we can pray. A new report from the Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC) says harassment of Christians in Israel went up again in the third quarter of 2026.
The numbers
- 106 acts of harassment across 96 incidents in Q3, up from 83 in Q2 and 44 in Q1.
- 73% of the acts were spitting, at Christians or at their churches and buildings.
- The rest included verbal abuse, vandalism, thrown objects, threats and even physical assault (5%).
- 92% happened in Jerusalem, most in the Old City, and 45% on a single street, Armenian Patriarchate Street.
Clergy told the group, “Not a week goes by without someone spitting at me.” The RFDC thinks dozens more incidents go unreported every month, and says many clergy now wear plain clothes just to avoid it. That means Christians are becoming less visible in the city where our faith was born.
My take
Jesus told us the world would hate us because it hated Him first, and He told us to bless those who curse us. So let’s do both things: speak up, and pray. Pray for the believers walking those streets every day, pray for the peace of Jerusalem like Psalm 122 says, and pray that the ones doing the spitting have their own Damascus road moment. The Holy Spirit has turned persecutors into apostles before.
Have a blessed day! And Happy Hacking!
