During the past few days, several video clips have circulated showing the Jewish settlers’ contempt for Christians, provoking feelings of outrage across the world. The first showed a Christian nun walking peacefully along a street when a Jewish settler — one of those living on land stolen from Palestinian citizens — attacked her, threw her to the ground, and continued kicking her with his feet.
This comes at a time when the Christian town of Taybeh in the West Bank is being subjected to a series of brutal attacks at the hands of settlers under the protection of Israeli army soldiers. Other clips were also circulated showing Israeli soldiers, after storming Southern Lebanon, mocking sacred Christian symbols. One soldier appeared smashing a life-sized statue of Christ on the cross, while another was shown tampering with a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary by placing a lit cigarette in the statue’s mouth and mocking while laughing and saying that miracles never cease.
Reactions to those clips have increased around the world, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say that he was saddened by those acts and to claim that the events are currently under investigation. But the truth is that contempt for non-Jews is part of the Zionist ideology upon which Israel was founded, an ideology that believes that the God who created all people chose only the Jews among them, and that the world is divided into two groups: one consisting of God’s chosen people, and the other consisting of what they call the Goyim or outsiders, whom they regard as inferior races whom Jews have the right to exploit in their service, and even the right to kill as animals are killed.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 21 May, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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