Theodosios Hanna

Hanna was born Nizar Hanna in 1965 and became a monk in Jerusalem in 1991, adopting the name Theodosios.[1] Theodosios means “gift of God,” as does the Arabic name Atallah.[1] He was appointed in 2005 as Archbishop of Sebastia in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.[1]

Hanna was a co-author of the 2009 Kairos Palestine Document, titled “A Moment of Truth: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering.”[5] On July 27, 2009, following the Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza, he addressed a gathering at Salam Arabic Lutheran Church in Brooklyn.[6] An interpreter summarized his Arabic remarks as supporting a one-state solution and rejecting a two-state solution as unjust and illusory.[6] A published translation quoted him saying, “Historic Palestine from the river to the sea; that is Palestine,” and describing Palestinians as one indivisible people wherever they lived.[6]

In November 2011, Hanna traveled from Jerusalem to attend the fourth annual conference of American Muslims for Palestine as a special guest.[7] Addressing an Arabic-language session at the Chicago conference over Thanksgiving weekend, he described Palestinian prisoners as having been sentenced because they “resisted,” “struggled,” and “waged Jihad.”[2] He concluded by declaring that Christians and Muslims stood together against the occupation.[2] In another reported passage, he called for “no peace agreement until the complete return of [Palestine’s] people and the liberation of its capital, Jerusalem.”[7]

In 2014, Hanna joined former Latin patriarch Michel Sabbah and Lutheran World Federation president Bishop Munib Younan in an open letter urging European governments to recognize a Palestinian state.[8] The letter advocated a state on the 1967 border with east Jerusalem as its capital and described recognition and the definition of Israel’s borders as a “first step” toward justice and peace.[8] A Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs commentary also places him at a March 2015 event in Germany launching what it described cautiously as an apparent new branch of the Deutsch-Palästinensische Gesellschaft.[9]

Hanna criticized a leaked Hamas religious-affairs ministry memorandum in 2020 that concerned limiting interaction with Christmas celebrations.[10] Calling the memorandum “inflammatory,” he nevertheless said it “will not harm our unity and good relations.”[10] Gaza’s religious-affairs ministry subsequently stated that Christians had the right to celebrate their religious occasions and should not be offended or restricted.[10]

In 2022, Hanna participated in an Iran-hosted online conference called “Annual Global Jerusalem Day,” which also included leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.[11] He declared that Jerusalem “was and will remain for its residents,” characterized Israeli policy there as illegal, and asserted that Islamic and Christian holy places were under attack.[11] He also said, “We are in one boat in the defense of Jerusalem.”[11]

Following an October 2022 assault on an Orthodox church in Beit Sahur near Bethlehem, Hanna called on the Palestinian Authority to bring the attackers to trial.[12] Dozens of men had thrown stones at the church on the preceding Friday night, injuring several people.[12] Hanna condemned the assault as damaging civil peace and relations among Palestinians, saying that a church was not a place for settling scores or undermining unity.[12]

On October 23, 2025, Hanna sent an open message to U.S. Vice President JD Vance ahead of Vance’s visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[5] The message urged Vance to “reject injustice, tyranny, occupation, and oppression” and included accusations against Israel concerning its conduct in Gaza and Jerusalem.[5]

Israeli authorities confiscated Hanna’s Israeli and Vatican passports in 2002, when he was identified as an archimandrite and an official of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.[13] Police held and questioned him at the Russian Compound about his travel to Syria and Lebanon, his relations with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, and his position on the Intifada.[13] He initially refused to sign a statement setting conditions for the passports’ return.[13]

His passport remained withheld during the reporting period covered by the 2003 religious-freedom report, and a separate human-rights account described continued denial of his passports at the end of that year.[14][3] The undertaking he declined concerned incitement, support for terrorist activity, and travel to states considered hostile to Israel.[15]

The case was closed in January 2004 after Hanna signed a declaration renouncing terrorism, and he was instructed to reapply for a passport.[16] The stated grounds for confiscation included alleged travel to Lebanon without Interior Ministry permission and hostile public statements there.[16] At the end of 2004, Hanna reportedly said he had received no response to his passport application.[17]

Hanna has developed a public profile that extends beyond church administration into Palestinian nationalist advocacy and interreligious politics. His appearances in Brooklyn and Chicago promoted a single Palestinian political community and Christian–Muslim solidarity.[6][2]

His public interventions have also included criticism of a Hamas ministry memorandum concerning Christmas and condemnation of the 2022 attack on the Beit Sahur church, where he urged prosecution of the assailants.[10][12] These episodes illustrate a dual public role: nationalist political advocacy and defense of Christian communal life within Palestinian society.

Statements attributed to Hanna have included describing Zionism as diabolical and unrelated to God’s word or the holy books, and rejecting peace with Israel in a January 19, 2003 sermon that called Israel “the greatest Satan.”[18][19] Allegations surrounding the passport case included claims that he endorsed terrorist activities, including suicide bombings, while visiting Gulf countries; these were allegations rather than established legal findings.[3] A Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs commentary recounts a separate allegation that he praised suicide bombers at a closed-door Haifa meeting, but also records his denial.[20]

Other allegations rest on political commentary: Pinhas Inbari wrote that Hanna attended a Hamas demonstration wearing a green Muslim Brotherhood scarf, while also criticizing a Daesh anti-Christian proclamation and declaring that Christians would not abandon Jerusalem.[21] In a 2017 Maariv column, Kalman Libeskind alleged fundraising for families whose homes Israel had demolished, meetings with Bashar al-Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, and a Christmas tree displaying photographs of Jerusalem attackers; he also reported that Knesset member Anat Berko sought action against Hanna’s citizenship.[22] These allegations were not independently corroborated in the material supporting this article.[22]

In December 2019, Hanna accused Israel of poisoning him after hospitalization following exposure to pest-control treatment at his residence.[23] His participation in the 2022 Iran-hosted conference prompted Bezalel Smotrich to demand a criminal investigation, not a reported finding of wrongdoing.[11] In February 2025, police reportedly opened a probe into Hanna’s condolence letter to Hezbollah after Hassan Nasrallah’s death; the letter honored “the sacrifices made by Sayyed Hassan and his companions” and expressed Palestinian loyalty to those sacrifices.[4]