“Christians are the most heavily persecuted religious community in the world, and this persecution is particularly severe in the Middle East. Since the fall of Assad and the takeover of power by Ahmed al-Sharaa and the HTS Islamists, the situation of Christians in Syria has deteriorated dramatically. Nevertheless, the EU is rolling out the red carpet for the new rulers in Damascus and is promising them billions. That is unacceptable.
However, the threat is not limited to Syria. Christians are also being displaced in other parts of the Middle East, partly for Islamist reasons and partly through ethnopolitically motivated land seizure. In the West Bank, radical Israeli settlers are driving Palestinian Christians out of their villages. Even the last almost entirely Christian village, Taybeh, is heavily affected. Local priests such as Bashar Fawadleh, the Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and the Vatican have repeatedly condemned the growing violence in the strongest terms, as has former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
The protection of Christians in the Middle East must be the highest priority and must become a non-negotiable condition in our foreign and development policy. Those who persecute Christians must not be courted and financed by Brussels and Berlin.”
