Israel has acknowledged and condemned the apparent desecration by an Israeli soldier of a statue of crucified Jesus in South Lebanon.
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The photograph, which was widely circulated across social media on Monday, shows a soldier smashing the face of the religious icon with a sledgehammer or the blunt side of an axe. The Israeli authorities have confirmed its authenticity.
In an X post shared on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the act “in the strongest terms, announcing that military authorities were conducting a criminal probe and that the offender would be subject to “harsh disciplinary action.”
“Yesterday, like the overwhelming majority of Israelis, I was stunned and saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon”, he wrote.
The Israeli Premier added that Israel, “as a Jewish state, cherishes values based on tolerance and mutual respect among followers of all religions.”
“While Christians are being slaughtered in Syria and Lebanon by Muslims, the Christian population in Israel thrives unlike elsewhere in the Middle East”, he stated.
The photograph in question appears to have been first posted on social media by Younis Tirawi, who describes himself as a Palestinian journalist. The incident was captured in Debel, a Christian village located approximately 6 kilometres from Lebanon’s border with Israel.
The defacement also triggered a heated debate on X between the Israeli government and Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski.
Sikorski commended Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar for apologising over the desecration of the statue of Jesus, stating “it’s good that Minister Sa’ar apologized quickly.”
However, he went on to state that Israel should learn from the incident, “IDF soldiers themselves admit to war crimes. They killed not only civilian Palestinians but even their own hostages”, in an apparent reference to Israel’s large operation in Gaza where more than 70,000 Palestinians were killed as well as Israeli hostages — collaterals of air and ground strikes.
The two-year offensive came in response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023. Sa’ar responded by accusing Sikorski of spreading “defamatory statements” about the IDF.
Sa’ar had initially tweeted that “the damaging of a Christian religious symbol by an IDF soldier in southern Lebanon is grave and disgraceful” and apologized “for this incident and to every Christian whose feelings were hurt”.
In a subsequent tweet, he rejected Sikorski’s comments as “grave, baseless, and slanderous against the IDF” (Israeli army). “The IDF is a professional and ethical army (…) There is no serious army of any Western democracy that does not seek to learn from the IDF and its experience”.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also condemned the desecration of the statue of Jesus which occurred in southern Lebanon, calling for “swift, severe, and public consequences.”
Lebanon’s Christians not spared
Approximately 30% of Lebanon’s population is estimated to be Christian, also the only country in the Middle East where power is shared between Muslim (Shia and Sunni) and Christian population — under what is known as the National Pact.
Lebanon is home to various Christian minorities, which include Maronite Catholics, who were previously a majority in the country, but are now a minority, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Greek Catholics and Armenian Apostolic.
Like Lebanon’s other religious communities, many Christians have found themselves caught in the crossfire over the course of Israel’s war against Shia militant group Hezbollah.
This latest incident risks further escalating heightened tensions between Israel and Lebanon, amid a fragile ceasefire, which came into effect last Thursday.
The long standing conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah was revived on 2 March, in the wider context of the US and Israel’s military campaign against Iran, which was launched on 28 February.
Hezbollah, who is backed and financed by Iran, fired rockets at Israel over its killing of then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prompting the Jewish state to retaliate with a large-scale air and ground operation.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since the renewed hostilities, while thousands have been displaced from their homes, including Christians.
Despite the truce, confrontations between the IDF and Hezbollah have continued in the buffer zone between the south of Lebanon and Israel.
The IDF has reportedly continued to demolish buildings in the area, warning many residents against returning to their homes or approaching a designated list of villages on Monday.
A series of diplomatic incidents
In another controversial incident involving the Church, Father Pierre Al-Rahi was killed on March 9 when an Israeli tank fired on a house located in the village of Qlayaa, on the southern border of Lebanon.
Pope Leo XIV reacted to his killing by expressing his “profound sorrow for all the victims of the bombings in the Middle East over the last few days” including “Father Pierre El-Rahi, a Maronite priest killed this afternoon in Qlayaa.”
Separately, Israeli authorities prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass for the “first time in centuries” on 29 March.
A decision which sparked mass condemnation from Western leaders, including Italian Premier Georgia Meloni, who defined the incident as “an offense not only against believers but against every community that recognises religious freedom.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the “concerning increase in violations of the status of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem.”
Israel’s Premier later reversed the police ban that initially blocked Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa from entering the Church, stating that he had been barred from accessing the premise due to safety concerns in light of Israel’s ongoing war against Iran.
“Over the past several days, Iran has repeatedly targeted the holy sites of all three monotheistic religions in Jerusalem with ballistic missiles. In one strike, missile fragments crashed meters from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre”, said Netanyahu.
“Today, out of special concern for his safety, Cardinal Pizzaballa was asked to refrain from holding mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Even though I understand this concern, as soon as I learned about the incident with Cardinal Pizzaballa, I instructed the authorities to enable the Patriarch to hold services as he wishes”, he added.
