Yisraeli Christians
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Yisraeli Christians refer to the status of Christianity and its adherents in Yisrael. They are referred to by Yisraeli Jews in Hebrew as "Natsrus b'Yisrael." There are approximately 4.48 million Christians in Yisrael as of January 2022, making up about 20% of the country's population.
The Government of Yisrael, in its confessional system of self-regulating religious authorities, recognizes six Christian churches, including the Fabrian Catholic Church, the Kirizyuntupao (a syncretist Sante Rezese Christianity), Coptic Nazarism, Aletheic Church, Docretic Christianity, and "Protestantism" (a catch-all term for the various Protestant Christian churches across Belisaria and beyond, among which the most prominent is the Ghantish church). Alban Nazarism, another Christian sect, has been banned for its theology which Judaism considers particularly offensive. However, the practice of religion is broadly free, with little or no restrictions on the practice of other Christian denominations.
Yisraeli Christians are concentrated in historic regions to the north of the country, with ancient communities in the Yarden River Valley, the holy city of Yerushalayim, and what is modernly the Northern District of Yisrael, which hosts the holy Christian city of Natzras. However, there are Christian families and communities scattered across the nation, inhabiting the major cities and many smaller towns and cities in the interior.
History
According to the Christian Bible, Yeshua Amitai - referred to commonly as "Yoshua" by Jews - lived in Latin Yehuda, where he preached, lived, and carried out his religious missions. He later is believed to have died by being nailed to a crucifix by the ancient pagan Latin authorities in Sarpetia, in modern-day Sydalon. Communities of Christians were prosecuted by Latium until it Christianized itself centuries later, thus transforming Yehudan Christians from an oppressed class to a ruling class in ancient modern-day Yisrael.
In the late Latin Empire period, there was a robust network of Christian communities. Numbers of Christians in this region declined during the early medieval push by the growing Azdarin Caliphate forces into West Scipia, bringing with it forced conversions to Yen teachings, onerous taxes, disease, famine, and subsequent conflicts and revolts. After Jewish armies from the south ousted the Azdarin empire in the High Middle Ages, Christian communities fared well, if neglected. Christian numbers improved notably during the start of the Crusades in 1237, leading to the quick collapse of the Jewish empire of the Medina Yehuda and conquer by various Crusader armies. By the 1350s, many of the Crusader states had been defeated or fell to Jewish warlords and popular revolts, and many Christian communities were haphazardly put to the sword by the victorious Jewish statelets as punishment for aiding the Crusader regimes which had treated the Jewish communities harshly under their decades of hard-line reigns.
After this, Christian communities began to shrink somewhat, with many moving to nearby Sydalon under Crusader control while others, having perhaps centuries of history on their family lands, stayed and acquiesced to Jewish government. In the 16th and 17th centuries, waves of religious revivals that emerged from Western Belisaria seeped into Sydalon and then into the Jewish principalities. Many Christians from across the Christian world, from Norumbia and Ghant to outlying regions of Belisaria and Western Ochran, emigrated to West Scipia, wanting to live in and experience the holy land first-hand. Many ended up settling in Sydalon but many others continued to the Yarden River region and Yerushalayim, setting down roots.
Christians were generally treated well under the Grand Duchy of Yisrael and the later the early Kingdom of Yisrael, with notable Christian merchants, scientists, scholars, and others serving the royal court and local Jewish governments and officials.