Attacks on Church in East Jerusalem Increase
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
JERUSALEM (Worthy News)– Attacks by violent Muslims have increased in intensity against a Christian congregation in East Jerusalem.
The leader of the congregation at Living Bread Church, Karen Dunham, told Morning Star News that the assaults were intended to stop the church’s ministry and force its congregation to abandon the property.
Living Bread’s congregation consists mostly of expatriates who came to Israel to implement social and spiritual projects; to that end, the church is strategically located in a commercial area on the main road that divides Arab East Jerusalem from an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood just outside the Damascus Gate of the Old City.
Dunham described the attacks as both a land grab and an act of religious persecution to punish the congregation for its work with the neighborhood.
Back In July when the IDF began bombing Gaza, criminal vandalism increased in the Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem. During the night, parts of Living Bread’s building would actually disappear: the wrought iron security gate protecting the back porch was first to vanish, then the vandals removed the iron shutters that protected the building’s windows. There was even an attempt to steal one of the church doors!
When Dunham first complained to the police, she said they were indifferent to the vandalism. But when she kept complaining, the violence was redirected towards her congregation. In one incident, assailants threw urine at church members who were sitting just outside the church building.
The intimidation has increased to a point that video cameras have been installed in an attempt to identify the vandals.