On Saturday, January 17, a statement from the heads of a diverse group of churches in Israel began causing waves on social media. The fact that the heads of the Greek Orthodox, Latin, Armenian, Coptic, Syriac, eastern Catholic, and other churches came together to issue a joint statement wasn’t remarkable in itself. Under the rubric of the Patriarchs and Heads of Local Churches of Jerusalem, these leaders issue occasional statements. Generally, they are ignored outside church.
But Saturday’s message was different.
It condemned “recent activities undertaken by local individuals who advance damaging ideologies,” then singled out Christian Zionism by name. It went on to complain that certain Christian Zionists “have been welcomed at official levels both locally and internationally.”
No one really knew what to make of the message initially. Who were the “local individuals”? When were they welcomed by government officials? And, most significantly, why launch a direct attack on Christian Zionism now, of all times?
Despite the unanswered questions, or perhaps because of them, a fight soon erupted. Evangelical Christian Zionists defended their theology. “It’s hard for me to understand why every one who takes on the moniker ‘Christian’ would not also be a Zionist,” wrote US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
Meanwhile, Catholic critics of Israel promoted the statement on X, declaring that the top Catholic figure in the Holy Land, Latin patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, had definitively rejected Christian Zionism.
Unfortunately for them, he did nothing of the sort.
Pizzaballa is a fluent Hebrew speaker who is well regarded by Jewish leaders. Though he is not afraid to speak out about pressures on Christians in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, he is not looking to make headlines attacking the Jewish state or Zionism.
What’s more, breaking with its usual practice, the Latin Patriarchate did not publish the Christian Zionism statement or share it on social media. Pizzaballa’s name does not appear on the statement. Neither does his signature.
Custodia Terrae Sancte, a Catholic body that oversees Christian sites in the Holy Land, removed the statement from its website as well.
Even more tellingly, when asked if the Patriarchate supports the statement, an official from the Patriarchate said only, “No comment.”
So how and why did a statement go out that ostensibly speaks in the Latin Patriarch’s name?
Many assume that since Pizzaballa is part of the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches group, he must have personally signed off on the statement. But the group doesn’t work in such an orderly fashion. The group’s secretariat sends out a draft, and says that if there are no objections by a certain time—last week it was 5 p.m.—then it will assume that all the church leaders agree with the statement.
Needless to say, if a patriarch is traveling that day, the first time he sees a message may be when it is published.
The main impetus for the statement, according to sources from two churches, is a fight led by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate against a group of Israeli Christians calling themselves the Israeli Christian Voice and the Eagles of Christ Movement.
The movement leader, Ihab Shilyan, was a career officer in the IDF and actively encourages young Christians to enlist as well. He was recently welcomed at Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s annual reception for Christian leaders, and has met multiple times with Huckabee.
It is no coincidence that last Saturday’s statement was posted on the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate website and shared with local journalists by a figure closely affiliated with the Greek Orthodox Church. The leader of Israeli Christian Voice boasted in response to the statement: “It appears that my meetings with senior and influential figures … have placed significant pressure on vested interests.”
What some touted as a clear rejection of Christian Zionism by the top Catholic official in the Holy Land was instead an episode in which one church rather disingenuously used a joint forum to drag other institutions into its fight. Far from expressing a unified Christian voice, the statement undermined the shaky trust between the historical churches in Jerusalem.
As the Christians around them bickered, Jews found themselves in a familiar spot. The patriarchs’ letter touched off a debate in which Jews were constantly invoked, but the fight wasn’t actually about them. They were mere placeholders in a drama that was really about religious authority, divine promises, and ecclesial divides.
Crucial decisions are being made in the Holy Land. Christians should be able to draw on their rich tradition of moral and political reflection to intervene in these debates. Unfortunately, the clumsy statement published last week makes it even harder for the region’s historic churches to offer a credible moral voice on complex issues of war, religion, and the fate of the birthplace of Christianity.