The villages of Yalu, Beit Nuba and Emmaus were known from the time of Jesus. The Church of Emmaus was reconstructed in 1902 by the Franciscan Fathers on Crusader Foundations. Emmaus has also a big Catholic Convent and was a great tourist attraction. These three Biblical villages were occupied by the Israeli army on June 9, 1967. All homes and buildings in the three villages, together with the Catholic Church, Convent and two Muslim Mosques were razed to the ground. Twenty two men, women and children were killed in the blasting operations. Over 5,000 people were made homeless.

The well known Jewish writer Amos Kenan was a soldier in the Jewish army unit which demolished these three villages. In an interview with the Jewish magazine Haolem Hazeh, he gave the following account:

The unit commander told us that it had been decided to blow up three villages in our sector; they were Beit-Nuba, Emmaus and Yalu. This was explained by strategic, tactical and security considerations. At noon the first bulldozer arrived and pulled down the first house at the edge of the village. Within 10 minutes the house was turned to rubble. The olive trees and cypresses were all uprooted. After the destruction of three houses the first refugee column arrived from the direction of Ramallah. We told them to go to Beit Sura. They told us that they were driven out everywhere, forbidden to enter any village, that they were wandering like this for four days, without food, without water, some dying on the road. They asked to return to the village, and said we’d better kill them. Some had a goat, a lamb, a donkey or a camel. A father ground wheat by hand to feed his four children. On the horizon we could see the next group arriving. The children cried. Some of our soldiers started crying too. We went to fetch some water. We stopped a car with a major, two captains and a woman. We took a jerrican of water and distributed it to the refugees. We also handed out cigarettes and candy. More soldiers burst out crying. We asked the officers why are these refugees sent from one place to another and driven out of everywhere. They told us this was good for them. Let them go. Moreover, said the officers, why do we care about the Arabs anyway. We drove them out. They go on wandering in the south like lost cattle. The weak die. In the evening we found out that we had been deceived, for in Beit-Sura too, bulldozers commenced destruction and they were forbidden to enter. We found out that not only in our sector was the border straightened out for security reasons but in all sectors. Our unit was outraged. At night we were ordered to guard the bulldozers, but the unit was so outraged that no soldier was willing to carry out such duties. None of us understood how Jews could behave like this. The chickens and doves were buried in the rubble. The fields were turned into wasteland in front of our eyes. The children who went on crying on the road will be Fedayeen in 19 years, in the next round. Thus have we lost on that day the victory.

Source: Encyclopedia of the Palestine problema by Issa Nakhleh.

These crimes committed by the Zionists reflected the deep-felt hatred of everything Christian embedded in the Zionist ideology. Testimony shows that this feeling went so deep that the Zionist authorities removed the international “+” sign from mathematics textbooks because of the resemblance of the plus sign to the Christian Cross.

Palestinian Christians cannot understand Christians in other lands who support Zionism despite this insane hatred of the Christian faith. American Jewish organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai Brith, raise a tremendous clamor whenever there is a desecration of Jewish Synagogues or a perceived slur against Judaism. But their deafening silence at similar Zionist crimes against Christianity in Israel sorrowfully indicates that the ADL is more self-righteous than righteous and more hypocritical than principled. Even more shameful is the attitude of the Christian televangelists who mislead their followers into supporting the persecution of their fellow Christians.

Chairman of Israel Human Rights League, Israel Shahak, has written about the deep-rooted Zionist hatred of Christianity and the manifestations of that hatred in Israel:

(Dishonoring) Christian religious symbols is an old religious duty in Judaism. Spitting on the cross, and especially on the Crucifix, and spitting when a Jew passes a church, have been obligatory from around AD 200 for pious Jews. In the past, when the danger of anti-Semitic hostility was a real one, the pious Jews were commanded by their rabbis either to spit so that the reason for doing so would be unknown, or to spit onto their chests, not actually on the cross or openly before the church. The increasing strength of the Jewish state has caused these customs to become more open again but there should be no mistake: The spitting on the cross for converts from Christianity to Judaism, organized in Kibbutz Sa’ad and financed by the Israeli government is an act of traditional Jewish piety. It does not cease to be barbaric, horrifying and wicked because of this! On the contrary, it is worse because it is so traditional, and much more dangerous as well, just as the renewed anti-Semitism of the Nazis was dangerous, because in part, it played on the traditional anti-Semitic past.

This barbarous attitude of contempt and hate for Christian symbols has grown in Israel. In the 1950s Israel issued a series of stamps representing pictures of Israeli cities. In the picture of Nazareth, there was a church and on its top a cross– almost invisible, perhaps the size of a millimeter. Nevertheless, the religious parties, supported by many on the Zionists “left” made a scandal and the stamps were quickly withdrawn and replaced by an almost identical series from which the microscopic cross was withdrawn.

Then there was the long-drawn-out battle about Christian influence in elementary arithmetic. Pious Jews object to the international plus sign for it is a cross, and it may in their opinion, influence little children to convert to Christianity. Another “explanation” holds: it would then be difficult to “educate” them to spit on the cross, if they become used to it in their arithmetic exercises. Until the early 1970s two different sets of arithmetic books were used in Israel. One for the secular schools, employing an inverted “T” sign. In the early ‘70s the religious fanatics “converted” the (Labor) Party to the great danger of the cross in arithmetic, and from that time, in all Hebrew elementary schools (and now many high schools as well) the international plus sign has been forbidden.

Similar development is visible in other areas of education. Teaching the New Testament was always forbidden, but in the old times conscientious teachers of history used to circumvent the prohibition, by (organizing) seminars or sending the students to libraries (not the school libraries, of course). About 10 years ago there was a wave of denouncing such teachers. One in Jerusalem was almost sacked, for advising her history pupils, who were studying the history of Jews in Palestine around 30-40 AD, that it would be a good thing if they would read a few chapters of the New Testament as a historical aid. She retained her post only after humbly promising not to do this again.

However, in recent years, anti-Christian feelings are literally exploding in Israel (and among the Israel-worshipping Jews in Diaspora too) together with the increase of the Jewish fanaticism in all other areas.

The worst enemies of the truth here, as in many other aspects of the Israel reality, are the socialists, “liberals”, “radicals”, etc. in the USA. Imagine the reaction of the US liberals, and of such papers as The Nation and New York Review of Books, not to speak of the New York Times if any state whatsoever, the government financed spitting on a Star of David? But when here in Israel, the government finances the spitting on a cross, they are and will continue to be, quite silent. More than this, they help to finance it. United States taxpayers, who are of course mostly Christians, are financing at least half the Israeli budget, one way or another, and there for spitting on the crosses too.

Source: Encyclopedia of the Palestine problema by Issa Nakhleh.

On April 26,1989, during the Holy Week for the Oriental Christians. the Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem published a common statement on the present situation in the Territories occupied by Israel, a situation deteriorating steadily since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising.

We send you herewith a copy of the original text in English and we would be grateful to you if you could make it known as much as possible.

This statement is signed by:

His Beatitude Diodoros I Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem

His Beafitude Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch

His Beatitude Yeghishe Derderian, Armenian Orthodox Patriarch

Very Rev. Father Carlo Cecchitelli, of m, Custos of the Holy Land

His Exc. Amba Basilios, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop

His Exc. Mar Dionysios Behnam Jijawi, Syrian Orthodox Archbishop

His Exc. Msgr Lutfi Laham, Greek Melkite Catholic Patriarcal Vicar

Right Rev. Samir Kafity, Bishop of the Episcopalian Church

Right Rev. Naim Nasr, Bishop ot the Evangelical Lutheran Church

We, the heads of the Christian communities in the Holy City, have met together in view of the grave situation prevailing in Jerusalem and the whole of our country.

It is our Christian conviction that as spiritual leaders we have an urgent duty to follow up the developments in this situation and to make known to the world the conditions of life of our people here in the Holy Land.

In Jerusalem, on the West Bank and in Gaza, our people experience in their daily lives constant deprivation of their fundamental rights because of arbitrary actions deliberately taken by the authorities. Our people are often subjected to unprovoked harassment and hardship.

We are particularly concerned by the tragic and unnecessary loss of Palestinian lives, especially among minors. Unarmed and innocent people are being killed by the unwarranted use of firearms and hundreds are wounded by the excessive use of force.

We protest against the frequent shooting incidents in the vicinity of the Holy Places.

We also condemn the practice of mass administrative arrests and of continuing detention of adults and minors without trial.

We further condemn the use of all forms of collective punishment, including the demolition of homes and depriving whole communities of basic services such as water and electricity.

We appeal to the world community to support our demand for the re-opening of schools and universities, closed for the past sixteen months, so that thousands of our children can enjoy again their basic right to education.

We demand that the authorities respect the rights of believers to enjoy free access to all places of worship on the Holy Days of all religions.

We affirm our human solidarity and sympathy with all who are suffering and oppressed; and we pray for the return of peace based on justice to Jerusalem and the Holy Land; and we request the international community and the United Nations Organization to give urgent attention to the plight of the Palestinian people and to work for a speedy and just resolution of the Palestinian problem.

Signed April 27, 1989 by: H. B. Diodoros (Greek Orthodox Patriarch); H. B. Michel Sabbah (Latin Patriarch); Bishop Samir Kafity (Episcopal Church); Archbishop Lutfi Laham (Greek Catholic Patriarchate); H. B. Yeghishe Derderian (Armenian Orthodox Patriarch); Bishop Naim Nassar (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan); H. B. Basilios (Coptic Orthodox Patriarch); Archbishop Dionysios Behnam Jijjawi (Syrian Orthodox Patriachal Vicar); Most Rev. Father Cechitelli (o.f.m.) (Cusios of the Holy Land).

Source: Encyclopedia of the Palestine problema by Issa Nakhleh.

This letter was published in 1998 in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

To ministers and leaders of the Evangelical or Fundamentalist congregations who support the State of Israel in its expansionist policies:

I am a member of a fundamentalist or evangelical church. Therefore, for some time I have been much troubled upon seeing your names listed in the New York Times (4/18/97 edition), or The Washington Post (1/22/98 edition) along with a number of other prominent fundamentalist ministers who are “joining together to support our Jewish brethren and the State of Israel.”

The articles indicated that your support for Mr. Netanyahu and/or expansionist Israeli leaders and governments is based on your interpretation of Revelation 7:3-8 and various verses from the Old Testament. I understand that you interpret these verses to mean that when the second coming of Christ is about to occur, the Jews on this earth will again possess all of the lands which were once theirs in the Old Testament.

These verses from the Old Testament you interpret to mean that God has a covenant with all Jews because they are the seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and David. (Genesis 12:17, Leviticus 26:44-45, Deuteronomy 7:7-8, David 7: 12-16, I Kings 15:4, Psalms 89:34-37 and Psalms 105:8-11). In none of these verses is it said that this covenant is with all of the seed of these Jewish leaders and forefathers.

The Christians and Muslims who are presently living in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza may be the seed of these Old Testament Jewish leaders as readily as the Jews who are presently living there, many of whom are immigrants from elsewhere. Many of the disciples themselves were originally Jews who lived in these areas. Would you not expect many of their “seed” to be there still?

Mr. Netanyahu and his government continue to build Jewish settlements on land taken by force and terror from the Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim. He and his government continue to seal off or blow up the homes of families in which one member is suspected of participation in any violent acts.

Suspected Christians and Muslims are deported or imprisoned for years without trial and are tortured while in prison. Christian and Muslim families are never given permits to enlarge their own homes no matter how many children they may have.

Taxes are exceedingly higher for Arab citizens than those for Jewish citizens, so high as to drive many Christians and Muslims out of business and/or their homes. Punishments for the killing of Christians and Muslims are usually so minor as to imply that their lives are worth nothing.

It has been indicated also that you base your support of Israel’s apartheid governments on your interpretation of what appears to be signs in today’s world that you think indicate the time for Christ’s second coming is near.

Christian villages have been taken over by terrorist tactics

In the light of all the Christian as well as Muslim villages that have been taken over by means of the very terrorist tactics that Mr. Netanyahu and his government now decry on the part of the Palestinian extremists, and in view of the apartheid treatment of both Christian and Muslim citizens in the areas that are controlled by the Israeli government, would it not be more in keeping with the teaching of Christ to consider more carefully the words of Christ in Acts 1:6 and 7: “When they therefore were com together, they asked of him, saying Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”

Time and time again throughout history, groups of Christians thought they had determined the time and the season by using the signs that are given in the New Testament, but each time they were made to look foolish when these words of Christ proved to be true.

We ate told that part of your support for Mr. Netanyahu and his “greater Israel” government is based on Genesis 12:3 where God said to Abraham, “I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee…” God is speaking to Abraham, not to all of his descendants. In the words that follow, “and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed,” surely these words refer to the coming of Christ out of the seed of Abraham, not to those Jews who rejected Christ then and now, and continue to persecute Christ through persecuting his followers.

“Who are my brethren?”

In Matt. 12:48-50, Mark 3:33-35 and Luke 8:21, Christ (the seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David) stated who His seed are when he said, “Who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And he stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister and mother.”

Many fundamentalist Christians are following the lead of Christian ministers who are giving support to those very people who best fit the description of the antichrist. I am not speaking of those Jews who truly desire peace with justice in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, many of whom place themselves in great jeopardy by speaking out or writing books to expose the insidious pressures and organized power used as well as the horrible injustice and cruelty practiced by the Zionists in order to obtain their objective of a greater Israel. I am speaking of the Orthodox, right-wing, hawkish Jews, many of whom look upon Christians and Muslims as subhuman and not worthy of human treatment.

In Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Dr. Israel Shahak, himself a Jew, quotes this special curse against Christians from the daily prayer book used by many Orthodox Jews in Israel: “And may the apostates have no hope, and all the Christians perish instantly” (page 92). On page 93 Dr. Shahak says that a devout Jew must utter a curse when passing near a Gentile cemetery, and upon seeing a dwelling inhabited by people other than Jews must ask God to destroy it.

The Israeli government, in response to the demands of these Orthodox Jews, bans the use of the plus sign in mathematics because it resembles the cross.

Should not our Christian leaders consider the possibility that the remnant of converted Jews spoken of in Revelation may consist in part of the persecuted Christians in this area whose ancestors may well have been the earliest Jewish converts, or the Jews who (in a more Christian spirit) abhor the cruelty and injustice inflicted on Christians and Muslims by the Netanyahu government and other “greater Israel” motivated governments? Surely the latter are more likely candidates for conversion.

Would it not behoove us to walk every day as if the second coming were going to occur on that very day by simply trying to live as Christ commanded, one aspect of which wold be to support our fellow Christians and give comfort to them in their suffering even as we forgive the persecutors? Surely Christ would not have us support those who persecute them? By the latter action is it possible that we might be endangering our immortal souls?

Another book written by a Christian minister is Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, whose Christian village in Palestine was demolished by Israeli soldiers. Pastor Chacour preaches forgiveness. Still another book is What Price Israel? by Alfred Lilienthal, a Jew who served the U.S. government in the Middle East during and after World War II.

In the report by the U.N. Committee Against Torture can be found the verification of the apartheid treatment of Christians and Muslims in Israeli occupied territories. In the May 9, 1997 issue of The New York Times the following quote serves to substantiate my statement regarding the sue of torture by the Israeli government or the Shin Bet with the acquiescence of the Israeli government: “According to Israeli human rights organizations, in recent years about 5,000 Palestinians have been subjected to violence in detention annually.” Also the following: “Human rights groups claim that 80 percent of the Palestinians who are tortured are never indicted for a crime.”

If you are interested in verifying anything I have said by reading the sources from which I have quoted and cannot find them in your local library, they can be obtained from the Washington Report, P.O.Box 53062, Washington DC.

May you be constantly filled with and governed by The Holy Spirit, acting in His wisdom and, as such, walking in His peace.

Kathleen Banks is a Virginia-born teacher who retired in 1985 after teaching in both the United States and the Middle East. This article is reprinted from the Washington report in the July/August 1998 issue.

* Kathleen Banks is a Virginia-born teacher who retired in 1985 after teaching in both the United States and the Middle East.