Jailed for desecrating a Christian statue and the reality of life for Palestinian Christians
JVL Introduction
A photograph of an Israeli soldier destroying a statue of Jesus in Lebanon has “gone viral” and there has been strong reaction from many quarters. ” After determining the authenticity of the photo, the Israel Defense Forces … concluded “the soldiers’ conduct completely deviated from IDF orders and values” and, as the Guardian reports, Two Israeli soldiers jailed over smashing of Jesus statue in Lebanon village. They will spend 30 days in a military prison.
Palestinian pastor Palestinian pastor, Munther Isaac, (who led services under the heading (“Christ in the Rubble”) acknowledged that this act was reprehensible but “called for directing anger toward attacks on civilians and widespread destruction in Gaza and Lebanon…The real outrage is the targeting of civilians, the assault on human dignity, the devastation in Gaza and Lebanon. War is evil. We need Accountability,”
30 days for attacking a statue but how many IDF soldiers have been charged for murder in Gaza, given the mountains of evidence that unarmed civilians were knowingly targeted? An indication of which is that 37% of those killed in Gaza are children whereas in the Ukraine the percentage is c. 4% (and that includes Ukrainian soldiers). How many have been charged for the well documented torture? Yet two soldiers are going to jail for desecrating a statue.
The incident prompted Jonathan Cook to republish his essay on Christians in Palestine and Israel from 2020. Among many important things, he notes that while Israel can hardly ban people from visiting holy sites in the West Bank, most obviously Bethlehem, it does its utmost to stop Palestinians benefiting economically and to stop visitors from understanding the reality of occupation for Palestinians. It is a long, important and fascinating read with pressures on those communities coming from many angles, not least from the Christian leaders and institutions across the world, including those based in Palestine.
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This article was originally published by Jonathan Cook's Substack on Mon 20 Apr 2026. Read the original here.
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If they deviated from policy then it must be IDF policy to target mosques as there is never this outrage when they do the same to hundreds of mosques.