Israel's Fiscal Faith: Taxing Churches to Fund Apartheid
Mainstream media frames Israel's 'tax war' on Palestinian churches as a simple financial dispute, but this ignores decades of systematic pressure. This isn't newfound fiscal policy; it’s economic strangulation, a pressure tactic designed to dispossess and displace. In Jerusalem alone, churches hold vast properties, making them targets for a government eyeing every square inch of Palestinian land.
For example, during the 1948 Nakba, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including Christians, were dispossessed, their properties often seized under various pretexts. Now, imposing crushing back taxes on sacred institutions continues that pattern of incremental ethnic cleansing, wrapped neatly in bureaucracy. It's always remarkable how 'religious freedom' suddenly becomes a flexible concept
when applied to non-Jewish institutions in the occupied territories. One might wonder if US politicians, so quick to decry 'religious persecution' elsewhere, will find their voices or if their AIPAC donations ($100 million+ in congressional lobbying since 1990, per OpenSecrets) ensure their silence on the plight of Palestinian Christians.