The Balasan Initiative for Human Rights (BIHR) convened a launch of its newest report: “Israel’s Systematic Breaches of the Status Quo of the Holy Sites of Jerusalem: Consequential Erosion of Christianity in Palestine,” on March 30, 2026, at Bethlehem Bible College.
The newly published report offers an in-depth analysis of the Status Quo governing Christian holy sites and institutions in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, tracing its evolution under successive international frameworks and examining how Israel’s systematic erosion of these arrangements undermines and accelerates the erosion of its indigenous Christian and Muslim communities and threatens the continued indigenous Christian presence in Palestine. The report examined the current challenges to the Status Quo and laid out recommendations for state and church actors to save the Status Quo from this erosion, as a collective and urgent responsibility.
Additionally, the report was accompanied by a summary – BIHR Version, and a briefing paper was also distributed to attendees.
BIHR’s founding Director, Adv. Dalia Qumsieh opened the launch event of the first-of-its-kind report on the Status Quo of Jerusalem, highlighting its historical importance and warning of its ongoing erosion. She stressed the urgent need to preserve this framework amid rising concerns, echoed by UN experts, about threats to Jerusalem’s pluralistic identity and Palestinian presence.
The panel brought together key figures to discuss its findings and the implications of the report. Dr. Xavier Abu Eid, the author of the report, presented the key findings of the systematic breaches of the Status Quo through legislative, administrative, financial, and on-the-ground measures aimed at replacing the Status Quo with Israeli domestic law, asserting sovereignty. The erosion of the Status Quo accelerates indirect forcible displacement and contributes to demographic engineering, particularly threatening the continuity of Palestinian Christianity. H. E. Hind Khoury’s intervention highlighted the impacts of Israel’s policies that violate the Status Quo, which have gradually shrunk both Christian and Muslim populations in Jerusalem by reducing indigenous communities to a symbolic or touristic presence rather than recognizing them as rights-bearing stakeholders rooted in the city. These policies also erase centuries of shared religious history and replace coexistence with an exclusivist political and religious narrative. Dr. Munir Nuesibeh shed light on the international legal frameworks that govern Jerusalem’s Status Quo, highlighting the violations of freedom of religion and cultural identity and the deprivation of the communities’ control over their historic and religious spaces. Among the attendees were diplomats from several states, including France, Russia, Brazil, and the UK, church representatives, church-affiliated institutions, and local NGOs and civil society.
