Claim: The Maronite bishop of Haifa, Yosef Yacoub, stated that Christians are loyal citizens of Israel and are grateful that they don’t share a country with Hezbollah while calling them “troglodytes stuck in the 7th century.”
Fact: The claim is false on two accounts: Firstly, Yousef Yakoub is not a Maronite bishop of Haifa. Secondly, he has denied making this statement, according to credible sources.
On 19 September 2024, an X (formerly Twitter) user posted an image of a bishop (archive). The post is captioned, “When Hezbollah called Christians in Israel ‘traitors’, this is how the Maronite bishop of Haifa, Yosef Yacoub, responded: ‘Mind your business, terrorists. We Christians are loyal citizens of Israel and grateful we don’t share a country with troglodytes stuck in the 7th century like you.’”.
The Israel-Hezbollah Crisis
Hezbollah is a political party and Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon. It was formed during the turmoil of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War that began in 1975.
The current conflict between Israel and Lebanon stems from tensions, particularly involving Hezbollah, which has been conducting targeted rocket, mortar, and drone attacks on Israel since the eruption of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023. In July 2024, the conflict intensified when Israel blamed Hezbollah for an attack in Israel-controlled Golan Heights, which killed 12 children and teens. Hezbollah denied any role in this attack according to APNews.
Since then Israel has intensified aerial strikes in Lebanon, attacked pagers and communication devices turning them into explosives, and is currently preparing for a ground offensive in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has continued rocket and aerial strikes in Israel.
Maronite Church
The Maronite Church is the Eastern-most Church that remains in full canonical communion with the Roman Catholic Church. It is primarily based in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, and Egypt. The Maronites trace the descent of their faith’s movement to the Syrian Saint and hermit St. Maron (Arabic: Mārūn).
The current head of the Maronite Church and the 77th Maronite Patriarch of Antioch is Bechara Boutros Al-Ra’i, Al-Ra’i is currently based in Lebanon as the seat of the Maronite Patriarchate is in Bkerke, northeast of Beirut.
Significant to the claim is Lebanon’s strong Christian and Maronite Catholic presence and population. According to the 1932 census (the last census ever taken), the Christian population is 53% of the total population, and of this Christian population, 52.5% identify as Maronite. The importance of the Maronite population is further emphasized by the National Pact. The National Pact is an unwritten agreement that shaped Lebanon as a multi-confessional state, and it mandates that the President of the Republic and the Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces must always be Maronite Catholics.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first conducted a keyword search with the initial part of the claim that Hezbollah called Christians in Israel ‘traitors’, and found reports by the National Catholic Register, L’Orient Today, and the Catholic News Agency from December 2023 and January 2024. According to reports, the Archbishop of Haifa Moussa al-Hage attended an annual New Year’s ceremony and meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog which multiple Christian leaders attended.
L’Orient reported that Al-Hage was criticized by Sadek Naboulsi, a religious sheikh affiliated with Hezbollah, who accused “anyone meeting an Israeli of ‘treason.’” Additionally, al-Ahed, a news site with ties to Hezbollah, reported that the collective of Representatives of Released Prisoners and Detainees submitted a request to the judiciary to open an investigation against Archbishops al-Hage and Semaan, accusing them of “having contact with the Zionist [Israeli] enemy.” However, Hezbollah itself never officially commented on the matter
For their part Christian leadership have denied conducting treasonous actions. According to the CNA report the patriarchs and heads of the churches stated that the goal of the meeting was to convey the global church position, “demanding an end to the bloodshed in Gaza.” Al-Hage stated the same according to a report by This Is Beirut saying, “the patriarchs and bishops who took part in this event conveyed a message related to the cause they defend, and they clearly denounced the military actions in Palestine.”
Soch Fact Check then conducted a keyword search containing the words, “Maronite bishop of Haifa” along with details of the statement issued by the bishop from the claim. The search found no reports by any credible or mainstream news outlets that validated the claim. However, the search did confirm that the current Maronite Archbishop of Haifa is Moussa El-Hage as noted in the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land (ACOHL) Maronite Church directory. ACOHL was founded in 1992 and brought together the bishops, eparchs, and exarchs of the Catholic Church holding jurisdiction over the territory of the Holy Land. These include the Latin, Greek Melkite, Armenian, Syriac, Chaldean, and significantly the Maronite Catholic Churches. It holds biannual plenary meetings, with extraordinary regional meetings convened as needed.
According to the ACOHL Haifa has one Archbishop and several pastors but no bishops, this was further confirmed by the Catholic Hierarchy. The same directory noted Rev Yousef Yakoub to be a pastor at the St. Louis the King Cathedral in Haifa, not a bishop. The directory does not enlist him as a bishop anywhere.
Finally, while no credible reports of a statement made by Rev Yousef Yakoub were found, Soch Fact Check did find a tweet from Elias Atienza, a senior reporter at Check Your Fact, an IFCN-signatory organization. In this tweet, Atienza confirms the news as false stating that, “Fr. Yosef Yacoub (not a bishop) just told me via email that this is ‘absolutely a fake news.’”
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim on Facebook here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Rev Yousef Yakoub is a Maronite pastor in Haifa, and not a bishop. According to credible sources, he has denied making this statement.
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