Christians in Israel need better protection from unjust attacks and systemic discrimination according to the country’s leading newspaper.

An editorial of the Jerusalem Post noted that a 3,000 strong pilgrim group were turned away by police from visiting the Church of the Transfiguration on August 18th.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry has ceased to grant work or clergy visas to Christian groups.

And this comes as attacks against Jerusalem’s Christian community, sometimes by extremist Jewish groups, have picked up, to the extent that the Israeli Tourism Ministry deemed it necessary to convene a forum on the topic.

The attacks range from verbal abuse to stone-throwing and vandalism, with one incident resulting in damage to 30 graves at a Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion.

The Post says both the attacks and the systemic approach to clamping down on the freedoms of Christians appear to stem from a fear of missionary activity.

They conclude that authorities “must find a way to clamp down on illegal missionary activity without discriminating against the wider Christian population, while simultaneously apprehending Jewish extremists who find it permissible to take matters into their own hands and ensuring that Christians and members of all faiths feel safe and protected in the Jewish state”.