priests are being verbally abused and spat at, and property vandalised.Is it too early to declare a crusade against the government of Israel?
Tensions have risen this year in the Christian and Armenian quarters of the 1 sq km ancient walled city, which includes the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest place in Christianity where Jesus was believed to be crucified and resurrected. The Old City is also home to places of critical religious importance to Jews and Muslims.
The churches say they are facing onslaught on three fronts: a war of attrition waged by hardline settlers; unprecedented tax demands by Jerusalem city council; and a proposal to allow the expropriation of church land sold to private developers.
Shortly after conquering Palmyra, on 27 May, ISIS released an eighty-seven-second video message promising to preserve the Roman ruins. That did not prevent ISIS a month later from initiating the systematic destruction of the graceful colonnades that stretched into the desert for nearly a mile along the ancient Roman road. Militants smashed the famed Lion of al-LΔt, a beautiful stone statue of a lion god protecting a gazelle that Polish archaeologist MichaΕ Gawlikowski discovered only in 1977. Subsequent reports from Palmyra were vague about what was happening. Then, in late August, satellite photographs confirmed that ISIS had razed the siteβs most impressive structures, the Roman-era Temples of Baalshamin and Bel. UNSECO head Irina Bokova called ISISβs vandalism a βwar crimeβ and an βintolerable crime against civilisationβ. ISIS followed those outrages with the destruction of Palmyraβs distinctive funeral towers that had stood for centuries at the fringe of the old city. If the jihadists stayed much longer, archaeologists feared, nothing would remain.Thank you for funding these head choppers, USG