SW News: Christian leaders of Jerusalem issued a joint statement calling on the government to enhance security at holy sites during the Holy Week.

The patriarchs and heads of local Christians in Jerusalem said that in recent months, escalating violence has engulfed the Holy Land. The leaders said that many churches, funeral processions, and public gathering venues have become targets of attack.

All three Abrahamic religions--Christianity, Judaism, and Islam--consider Jerusalem a holy city, and have major religious observances in the coming weeks. Many will crowd Jerusalem’s Old City during this time. The Christian leaders issued two different statements lamenting the increasing cycle of violence in the Holy Land.

For Christians who use the Gregorian calendar, Easter is on April 9; many Orthodox Christians celebrate it the Sunday after. Jews will observe Passover from April 5 to April 13. On March 22, Muslims around the world started to observe their holy month of Ramadan.

In January, graffiti reading "Death to Christians" and “Death to Arabs and Pagans” was found on the walls of a monastery and a place where Maronite Catholics gather for worship in Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter.

In February, Israelis and Palestinians engaged in violent fighting and retaliatory gunfire in Nablus and the adjoining village of Huwara. Following an agreement by Israeli authorities to prevent the spread of settlements into Palestinian territory, this confrontation erupted.

According to a report by All Israel News, many religious Jews reportedly threw tables and chairs at an Armenian Christian-owned restaurant on February 2, causing customers to flee in fear. A Jewish American tourist was detained on suspicion of damaging a statue of Jesus in a church along the Via Dolorosa. The report also stated that the series of attacks began on January 1 when two religious Jews broke into and vandalized dozens of gravestones in a Protestant cemetery.

All Israel News mentions that this type of violence is not supported by wider Israeli society. Several Jewish groups have shown their support for the Christian community, for instance by planning a ‘solidarity tour’ of the desecrated cemetery and one through the Armenian Quarter.