Thousands of Arab Israelis protest against Galilee church arson attack

Thousands of Arab Israelis protested on Sunday against the arson attack by Jewish extremists on a Galilee church last week.

Christians and Muslims marched together in the street adjacent to the historic Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes at Tabgha, on the Sea of Galilee. The church was badly damaged in what appears to have been a hate crime. Offensive and racist graffiti was scrawled in Hebrew on the walls of the building.

The demonstrators called for the protection of Christian and Muslim holy sites from Jewish settlers. The former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, and Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo led a special Mass inside the church “in protest against the deliberate attack”.

The Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee has been attacked by extremist Jews, who wrote racist graffiti on the walls and set it ablaze. The historic church, in Tabgha, was seriously damaged by the fire. Graffiti included “Death to non-Jews” in Hebrew and other racist phrases.

The “loaves and fishes church”, as it is commonly known, was also attacked in April last year when unknown individuals damaged one of the crosses erected in the church courtyard as well as a number of the pews inside.

The church stands on the site where it is believed that Jesus of Nazareth performed the miracle, by God’s leave, of multiplying a small number of loaves of bread and fishes to feed a large crowd.