A group of Christians gathered at Israel’s border with Syria in the Golan Heights over the weekend to demand that the European Union, Israel, and the United States protect Christians in Syria.
Shadi Khalloul, who helped organize the gathering, told The Daily Wire that he is concerned about his fellow Arameans Christians just across the border.
“We’ve heard stories of Christians in Syria killed by Jihadists or caught by Jihadists who tried to convert them to Islam by force,” Khalloul said. “One man preferred dying with his faith in Jesus Christ as his savior rather than submitting to Islam.”
Khalloul is part of Israel’s Christian Maronite Aramaic community, which believes it descends from Christ’s earliest followers.
We at ICAA Israeli Christian Aramaic Association NGO rallied today at the Golan Heights at the Syrian – Israeli border demanding for the defense and protection of Christian and Aramaic communities in Syria. We demand from the USA, EU, and Israel to help 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 town on Syria’s coast on March 12. His fiancé, Rima Hadad, was severely injured and is in critical condition. Eyewitnesses allege the sniper belonged to Syria’s government security forces.
“The perpetrators must be visibly and swiftly brought to justice to ensure accountability and prevent further violence against Christians, Alawites, and other defenseless civilians,” the council wrote.
In another incident, the council said Elias Michel Asaad, who is also a Christian, was found dead last week after being kidnapped and robbed in Homs.
“His body was laid to rest in his home village of Al-Khansa, in the Valley of the Christians region of Homs Governorate.”
According to the Greek City Times, some Christians were recently killed, including two Antiochian Greeks, Tony Petrus and his son, Fadi.
In total, the World Council of Arameans claims at least a dozen unarmed Christians have been killed since the militants aligned with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa brutally slaughtered hundreds of Alawite minorities on Syria’s coastal areas earlier this month.
Al-Sharaa called for “national unity and domestic peace” after the attacks and launched a “fact-finding committee” to hold the attackers responsible. Syrian authorities blamed the executions on unruly militias who came to help the security forces who were attacked by militants aligned with deposed former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
In addition to the murders, the World Council of Arameans says Christians have been looted and threatened since the clashes.
“Some of these Jihadis say it clear and loudly to Christians: that your turn will come after the Alawites,” Khalloul, who is the president and founder of the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association, said.
Khalloul said his group is demanding that the Christian and Aramaic communities in Syria be protected from persecution by Al-Sharaa and his aligned militants.
“We demand that the United States, European Union, and Israel help our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters across the border from the Islamic Jihadi regime,” Khaloul said. “We demand that other Christians in free societies help liberate Christian communities in Syria and Lebanon from Islamic Arab radicalism.”
“While here in Israel, we enjoy freedom to act, speak, and demonstrate, the Christians, on the other side, fear for their lives and are threatened to be ethnically cleansed,” Khalloul said. “We will always be a voice to protect our native Aramaic Christian communities in the Middle East.”
Christian Israelis gathered at the Syrian border this weekend to call on the world to protect Christians in Syria.
Here’s a Christian Maronite Aramean praying for the safety of his brothers and sisters in Syria. pic.twitter.com/LfrjjRvmOA
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) March 19, 2025
So far, Israel — which has a sizable Druze community with many members who serve in the Israeli Defense Forces — vowed to protect the Syrian Druze from any harm and has shipped humanitarian aid to Druze villages.
Khalloul said he believes there should be federal systems in both Syria and Lebanon that allow Christians and other minorities to have autonomy, rather than be under the rule of strong central governments that will oppress indigenous people such as the Druze, Alawites, Arameans, and Kurds.
By fighting to give Christians around the world autonomy, Khalloul said Europe and the United States can help forge a bridge for peace and moderation in a conflict-ridden region.
“Our Native Christian population has been facing persecution, oppression, Islamization and Arabization,” Khalloul said. “We ask to liberate the Christians and stop our people’s ethnic cleansing immediately.”
In a previous interview with The Daily Wire, Khalloul said it is his life mission to preserve his people’s culture while he was in a “Bible as English Literature” class at the University of Nevada. He said that during a class, the professor referred to Aramaic as a “dead” language, to which he responded that he and his family spoke Aramaic and that it was not dead. Since then, Khalloul returned to Israel and has worked to preserve the Aramaic culture and language.
In 2013, he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a meeting he said later led to a 2014 measure that allowed Christians in Israel to register as “Aramean” on their identity card instead of as Arabs.
According to Khalloul, there are 15,000 Israeli Christians praying in Aramaic in Israel, and the majority of them belong to the Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch.
