Dormition monks are often attacked. At the end of December, the inscription “Christian missionaries are worse than Hamas” appeared on the wall of the Orthodox cemetery in front of the abbey. Often, during the night, the monastery is targeted with stones.
“I don’t have any hatred,” Schnabel said. “I prayed for the two guys who harassed me, as I always pray for attackers. It is the DNA of my being as a Christian.
Both perpetrators were sentenced to house arrest.
The Benedictine asked himself “what is wrong with these people, who cannot accept that Jerusalem is a multicultural, multireligious and multiethnic city, holy for all Jews, Christians and Muslims? What are they taught in their yeshivot (religious schools), in their synagogues? I think there is a lack of good religious education,” he said.
“I ask the Israeli government and the religious leaders of Israel who are really aware of this phenomenon,” Schnabel said. “As a Christian, I am very aware of the growing problem of anti-Semitism and I really ask that in Israel as well, it is accepted and recognized that there is a problem called Christian hatred on the Jewish side.”