A gaggle of Christians gathered at Israel’s border with Syria within the Golan Heights over the weekend to demand that the European Union, Israel, and america shield Christians in Syria.
Shadi Khalloul, who helped manage the gathering, instructed The Day by day Wire that he’s involved about his fellow Arameans Christians simply throughout the border.
“We’ve heard tales of Christians in Syria killed by Jihadists or caught by Jihadists who tried to transform them to Islam by drive,” Khalloul mentioned. “One man most well-liked dying together with his religion in Jesus Christ as his savior moderately than submitting to Islam.”
Khalloul is a part of Israel’s Christian Maronite Aramaic community, which believes it descends from Christ’s earliest followers.
We at ICAA Israeli Christian Aramaic Affiliation NGO rallied right this moment on the Golan Heights on the Syrian – Israeli border demanding for the protection and safety of Christian and Aramaic communities in Syria. We demand from the USA, EU, and Israel to assist our persecuted Christian… pic.twitter.com/OKG1OhyOOj
— Shadi khalloul שאדי ח’לול (@shadikhalloul) March 15, 2025
The World Council of Arameans reported that Johnny Al Sayegh of Al Kharab was shot and killed by a sniper in a city on Syria’s coast on March 12. His fiancé, Rima Hadad, was severely injured and is in important situation. Eyewitnesses allege the sniper belonged to Syria’s authorities safety forces.
“The perpetrators should be visibly and swiftly dropped at justice to make sure accountability and stop additional violence towards Christians, Alawites, and different defenseless civilians,” the council wrote.
In one other incident, the council mentioned Elias Michel Asaad, who can be a Christian, was discovered useless final week after being kidnapped and robbed in Homs.
“His physique was laid to relaxation in his house village of Al-Khansa, within the Valley of the Christians area of Homs Governorate.”
According to the Greek City Times, some Christians have been just lately killed, together with two Antiochian Greeks, Tony Petrus and his son, Fadi.
In whole, the World Council of Arameans claims a minimum of a dozen unarmed Christians have been killed for the reason that militants aligned with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa brutally slaughtered tons of of Alawite minorities on Syria’s coastal areas earlier this month.
Al-Sharaa referred to as for “nationwide unity and home peace” after the assaults and launched a “fact-finding committee” to carry the attackers accountable. Syrian authorities blamed the executions on unruly militias who got here to assist the safety forces who have been attacked by militants aligned with deposed former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Along with the murders, the World Council of Arameans says Christians have been looted and threatened for the reason that clashes.
“A few of these Jihadis say it clear and loudly to Christians: that your flip will come after the Alawites,” Khalloul, who’s the president and founding father of the Israeli Christian Aramaic Affiliation, mentioned.
Khalloul mentioned his group is demanding that the Christian and Aramaic communities in Syria be protected against persecution by Al-Sharaa and his aligned militants.
“We demand that america, European Union, and Israel assist our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters throughout the border from the Islamic Jihadi regime,” Khaloul mentioned. “We demand that different Christians in free societies assist liberate Christian communities in Syria and Lebanon from Islamic Arab radicalism.”
“Whereas right here in Israel, we take pleasure in freedom to behave, converse, and show, the Christians, on the opposite facet, worry for his or her lives and are threatened to be ethnically cleansed,” Khalloul mentioned. “We’ll all the time be a voice to guard our native Aramaic Christian communities within the Center East.”
Christian Israelis gathered on the Syrian border this weekend to name on the world to guard Christians in Syria.
Right here’s a Christian Maronite Aramean praying for the security of his brothers and sisters in Syria. pic.twitter.com/LfrjjRvmOA
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) March 19, 2025
Up to now, Israel — which has a large Druze group with many members who serve within the Israeli Protection Forces — vowed to protect the Syrian Druze from any hurt and has shipped humanitarian assist to Druze villages.
Khalloul mentioned he believes there ought to be federal methods in each Syria and Lebanon that permit Christians and different minorities to have autonomy, moderately than be underneath the rule of sturdy central governments that can oppress indigenous individuals such because the Druze, Alawites, Arameans, and Kurds.
By combating to offer Christians all over the world autonomy, Khalloul mentioned Europe and america may also help forge a bridge for peace and moderation in a conflict-ridden area.
“Our Native Christian inhabitants has been dealing with persecution, oppression, Islamization and Arabization,” Khalloul mentioned. “We ask to liberate the Christians and cease our individuals’s ethnic cleaning instantly.”
In a previous interview with The Day by day Wire, Khalloul mentioned it’s his life mission to protect his individuals’s tradition whereas he was in a “Bible as English Literature” class on the College of Nevada. He mentioned that in a category, the professor referred to Aramaic as a “useless” language, to which he responded that he and his household spoke Aramaic and that it was not useless. Since then, Khalloul returned to Israel and has labored to protect the Aramaic tradition and language.
In 2013, he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a gathering he mentioned later led to a 2014 measure that allowed Christians in Israel to register as “Aramean” on their identification card as an alternative of as Arabs.
In response to Khalloul, there are 15,000 Israeli Christians praying in Aramaic in Israel, and the vast majority of them belong to the Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch.
