Under fire for being pro-Israel in Israel

P. David Hornik writes at Pj Media about an embattled pro-Israel priest in Israel. Israel’s Christian Arab community numbers about 130,000, or about 10 percent of the larger Arab community that is mostly Muslim. There has been a massive flight of Christians from Muslim-majority countries. The only place where Christians are growing in numbers in the region is Israel.

There is a priest in Israel who wants

young Christians to become totally integrated into Israeli society, which also entails shouldering their fair share of the burden of national service. Our future as a Christian minority is intertwined with that of the State of Israel.… We feel secure in Israel…. Most of the young Christians here view Israel as their country.

His name is Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox priest in the town of Yafia near Nazareth.

For his efforts, though, Father Nadaf is under fierce fire from elements of Israel’s Christian Arab community and its Arab community in general.

Notices, signs, and posters all over the Nazareth area condemn Father Nadaf, too, and bodyguards surround him whenever he enters his church in Yafia. He was banned from Nazareth’s Church of the Annunciation, and may lose his position in Yafia. The tires of his car have been punctured, a rag with bloodstains laid at his doorstep. His family receives regular death threats and are cursed when they walk the streets.