Posted on: 2000

By Fr. Majdi al-Siryani

The issue of the position of the Jerusalemite Christian Community becomes known at the negotiations between Israel and the PLO in the Camp David 2 negotiations.

Here are some points that were touched in a letter from the Jerusalem Patriarchs to President Clinton, Barak and Arafat on July 17, 2000 concerning the position of Christians  on sovereignty issue.

The Christians of Jerusalem follow with great concern and interest the report of the Camp David negotiations and especially the issue of Jerusalem and its final status.

The Christians of Jerusalem are Palestinians too. Christians of the Holy Land come from various origins having gone through many historical changes and peoples movements- they  form an integral part of the Palestinian people.

Christians were born to Palestine nationals on Palestinian soil, thus we are Palestinian nationals regardless of Israel occupation and, on the other hand, no one is trying to exclude us or revoke our Palestinian nationality.

This is why we reiterate that it is an obligation / right to be under one’s own people’s sovereignty and this is what any  Palestinian- again regardless of religious affiliation- would opt for.

Their concern about Jerusalem goes beyond the city as the Christian Holy City, it is a tie that is deep and strong.

Jerusalem is the heart of their nationalistic interest and concern. Christians are concerned about the territorial sovereignty. They consider the East Jerusalem as an Arab Palestinian  City and they hope it will be the capital of the Palestinian State. On the other hand, concerning the religious dimension of Jerusalem, they believe that Jerusalem is holy for Christians, Jews and Muslims.

From the book Socio-economic characteristics and challenges to Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land by Bernard Sabella

Palestinian Christians

Palestinian Christians have roots, which strike, deep from the early church. Worldwide, Palestinian Christians number 400,000 or 6.7 % of a total Palestinian population of 6 million. 51,000 of these 400,000 Palestinian Christians live in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, while there are 114,000 Palestinian Christians in Israel. The indigenous Christian population of the Holy Land numbers 165,000 or 41.3% of all Palestinian Christians worldwide. The Christians of the West Bank and the Gaza strip are only 2.9% of the entire Palestinian population in the occupied Territories.

In 1948, as a result of the creation of the State of Israel, over 714,000 Palestinian became refugees. 7% or 50,000 of these refugees were Christians, and they made up 35% of all Christians who lived in Palestine prior to May 15, 1948.

At present, Christians have undergone the same measures and processes, which arise from the occupation. The Intifada, as a popular uprising, saw Christians and Muslims engaged in an effort to end the occupation and achieve independence. The records of young imprisoned and martyred are other indications of the attachment to, and identity with Palestine and its cause. In addition, the active involvement and participation of Palestinian Christians in all aspects of life in the country is itself a testimony to the love they harbor for their country and their fellow Palestinians.

Socio-economic characteristics of Christians

Education

Palestinians pride themselves on their educational achievements. It is through this that they were able to rehabilitate their lives and bring up their families.

At present 541,000 Palestinian students are engaged in over 1,700 educational institutions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 30.7 per cent of the entire population are at school.

Among Palestinian Christians, education has been valued for the sense of security, which it imparted to the educated, through acquiring foreign languages and qualification for employment.

Palestinian Christians have on average 11.2 years of education per person. The percentage of Christians with a secondary certificate, or higher qualification, is almost twice the percentage in the general population, while the percentage of Christians with an academic degree is close to three times the general percentage.

Employment and occupational prospects 

Palestinian Christians tend to predominate in the sector of public services, which includes such areas as education, health, and tourism.

This is particularly so in the central area of the West Bank where over 47.4 per cent of employed Christians work in public services, in comparison to 26.3 per cent of the general population.

Almost 55 per cent of employed Palestinian Christians work in academic, technical, managerial and clerical jobs. By way of contrast, only 20 per cent of employed Palestinians work in these occupations. In industry: General population: 37 %, Christians: 21% Unemployment is a challenge to the Christian community, more than 10 per cent of the community aged 65 years and above are suffering from this phenomenon.

Posted on: 2004

By Bernard Sabella

The involment and participation of Christians in the affairs of their national community is not surprising, given the good relations, which obtain between Christians and Muslims, and the fact that Palestinian Christians are indigenous to the land and society. A number of factors have contributed to good Christian-Muslim relations:

1- The modern history of Palestine with the Arab-Israeli conflict affecting the entire population equally, with the experience of dispersal and loss of homeland.

2- The contribution which Christian institutions, mostly Western, have made since the 19^thcentury to the education, health and other needs of the population irrespective  of religion.

3- The presence of the Holy Places, and the recognition by Islam of the centrality of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth to Christianity. This recognition is best crystallized

in Khalif’Umar’s al- ‘Uhda al-‘Umariyya, which was his guarantee of the safety of Christians and their holy places in 638 when Islam entered the country.

4- The urban nature of the Christian population and its living in religiously mixed neighbourhoods, thus emphasizing openness and neighbourly relations between Christians and Muslims. In those instances where the Christians lived in villages and rural areas, friendly co-operation and communal sharing.

5- Christians take equal pride in their national and religious rots. Being a good Christian has never detracted from being a god nationalist Palestinian, and vice versa.

6- The Ottoman millet system, which recognized the autonomy of the Christian communities to run their own internal affairs, especially those related to religious and civil matters. The system allowed Christians of the Ottoman Empire to assume important positions, especially in certain areas, such as commerce and finance, which were previously frowned upon by Muslims.

From the book Christians in the Holy Land. Edited by Michael Prior and William Taylor

With the establishment of the first community of Christians in Jerusalem, which dates back to apostolic times (Act 2.4), the first Christian Church was established. Jerusalem is the source of Christianity. The history and doctrine of the Church began there. It is from Jerusalem that Christianity spread to various parts of the Middle East and to the rest of the world (Wilkinson 1989). The roots of Arab Christians in the Holy Land go back to the early communities of Christians in the area. By the 5^th century, Arab kingdoms in Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Palestine adopted Christianity (Acts 2:11; Issa 1984: 108; Samir 1986: 26).

During the first half of the 7^th century, Islam conquered the whole Middle East, and dealt with the Christians in the area with all tolerance. In the Qur’an, the Christians were mentioned quite favourably in several verses (Sura al-Ma’ida vv.85-88). Verse 85 reads:

And nearest among them in love

To the Believers wilt thou

Find those who say,

“We are Christians”;

Because amongst these are

Men devoted to learning

And men who have renounced

Are not arrogant.

In addition, when Muslims conquered the Holy Land, they gave the Christians, the “People of the Book”, in 636 AD, a covenant of protection for their persons and their possessions, known as the “Covenant of ‘Umar’ (El Aref 1961: 91; Mansour 1991: 80).  Since the arrival of Islam in the Holy Land right up to the present time, the relationship between Arab Christians and Arab Muslims has been one of mutual respect. What binds Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land is that they are both Arabs. Both have a common culture, a common history, a common language, and a common land. Though different religion, they share a common heritage (Mansour 1991: 76). Together they have participated society. Moreover, the contributions of Arab Christians to the Arab culture as a whole have been acknowledged (Samir 1986).

From the book: Christians in the Holy Land and edited by: Michael Prior and William Taylor

It is true that the missionary schools played an important role in educating the Christians Arabs at a time when education was scarce. However, their inability to recognize and respect the indigenous church, instead of consolidating the local Christians in Palestine led to the exact opposite. The Christian schools not only brought in their respective language and culture, but were a means, whether international or not, of dividing the already fragile Palestinian Christian Community, and alienating it from its mother culture. Because the emphasis was on religious, rather than national identity, the school, instead of retaining the educated local Christian, provided him with a direct link to the West, and became a catalyst to the evacuation of the Palestinian Christian Community.

Christian Arabs have been sensitive to the threat that cultural colonization would involve their up rooting from their heritage. They have tried to affirm their national identity, and have been at the root of the Arab national movement. However, they have not been able to resist the challenge that was presented, both by the colonization church, and by the political ambitious of the West concerning the Middle East in general, and Palestine in particular. In Palestine this awareness was translated in the 30s and 40s into the development of a new type of private school which was neither Christian nor Muslim. It was national, and had the slogan, ‘Religion is for God and the homeland is for all.’ Such was the case of Beir Zeit school, which has now developed into a University, the Nahda College in Jerusalem and Gaza College in Gaza.

As has been demonstrated in my historical preview of education in Palestine, the importance of the private school sector, which is predominantly Christian, is receding, in view of the growing availability of public education. Because the Christian school has managed to maintain a relatively acceptable standard, and because the Christian school still holds a certain prestige, we find that its presence now is more a function of class than it is of need. This aspect, however, is definitely not conductive to playing a cementing role for the Christian community in Palestine. It is becoming more evident that the survival of the Christian school is based on the collection of school fees. For that reason, the Christian school is beginning to disadvantage poorer Christians, except, of course, in the case of parish schools, or schools that are strongly subsidized by the international Church. This perpetuates the cycle of social discrimination, which in this case is based on socio-economic factors, rather than on purely religious ones, but, more often than not, on both.

This article was taken from Custodia Terra Sancta and was published in 2002.

The Custos of the Holy Land is the Minister Provincial (i.e. the major superior) of the Friars Minor living in the whole Middle East. He has jurisdiction over the territories of Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt (partially), Cyprus and Rhodes without counting the numerous houses (Commissariats) in various parts of the world (worth mentioning those of Rome and Washington).

The main task of the Custos, besides animating the life of he friars, is to coordinate and direct the reception of pilgrims who come over to the Holy Land in pilgrimage and pray at the shrines of our Redemption.

Such a task was handed out by the Holy See more than 600 years ago. The term used at those times to designate this task was “custody” of the holy places from which derived the terms still in use “Custody” and “Custos”.

The first and most important role of the Custos therefore is to receive the pilgrims at the Holy Shrines, offering them spaces and the possibility to pray while caring to give shelter even to those who cannot afford to use expensive hotels. At the same time the pilgrims are offered the possibility to find the friars who are ready to receive and hear them. All the catholic Christian sanctuaries are under his jurisdiction. He sees to it that enough economical support is given to fulfill this most important function at these holy places.

Another mission which the Custos undertakes when he takes office is to coordinate the information about the Holy Land and instill in the Christians of the world the “loving care” for these sites: archaeological excavations at the holy places, publication of ancient pilgrimages and above all the study of the bible through geography and history of he same sites where the events took place. For this reason the Custody has set up the SBF, FAI, and FPP etc. All this activity depends mainly on the Custos who even sponsors such initiatives.

Another important task the Custos undertakes is to care and sustain, in agreement with the local church, the Christian presence in the Holy Land by various initiatives, amongst which we can mention schools and parishes.

All these initiatives clearly require not only the moral support of Christians throughout the world but also an economical one. It is for this reason that during the centuries various “Commissariats of the Holy Land” were set up throughout the world to Foster the awareness about the friars living in the Holy Land and at the same time make collections to help sustain the work of the Custody. All these Commissariats (and they are many) depend directly from the Custos.

Given the important role of the Custos he is not elected like all the other Ministers Provincial of the Order. He is directly nominated by the Holy See after a consultation with the friars of the Custody and the presentation made by the Order’s governing body.

In the Holy Land Custos is considered as one of the main Christian religious authorities. He, together with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch and the Armenian Orthodox Patriarch, is responsible of the Status Quo, the code that regulates life at the Holy Sepulchre and Bethlehem.

By right he forms part of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land (the Bishops of the local catholic church).

Posted on: 2002

By Don Wagner

Palestinian Christians could disappear in the Holy Land within a generation if the present war and emigration patterns among Christians continue.

Overview:

On a moonlit December evening in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, seventeen-year-old Johnny Thaljiya was outside his cousin’s souvenir shop. He had just finished the evening mass at the historic Greek Orthodox Church of the Nativity where he served as an altar boy.

Suddenly, Johnny let out a scream and grabbed his throat as he fell to his knees and collapsed. Family and friends rushed to his side and realized that Johnny had been shot through the throat by an Israeli sniper, not an unusual fate for young Palestinian men these days. Rushed to the hospital, it was too late to save him. Johnny died within an hour as the number of Palestinian deaths crept toward 800 over the previous 16 months of the al-Aqsa intifada.

Sadly, the international community has done nothing to protect Palestinian youths and other civilians from a fate like that of Johnny Thaljiya.

A U.S. veto at the United Nations (UN) has blocked impartial international observers who would function as buffers between the Israeli army and the Palestinians. Today every Palestinian is at risk under this occupying army and increasingly every Israeli is at risk as the violence continues to escalate in the occupied Palestinian areas and inside Israel.

Often overlooked in this descent into war in the Holy Land is a community whose presence may not survive the next 25-30 years in Israel and Palestine: the dwindling Palestinian Christian community.

Many Palestinian scholars believe that Palestinian Christians could disappear in the Holy Land within a generation if the present war and emigration patterns among Christians continue. It is ironic that as Palestinian Christianity celebrates its anniversary of 2,000 years in Palestine and Israel, the community is on the verge of extinction.

Perhaps more troublesome is the fact that little is being done by the West or the international Christian churches.  Most striking is the fact that the Middle East policies of the nation with the largest and most powerful Christian majority is underwriting the destruction of Palestinian Christianity through its uncritical support of Israel’s war machine.

The British Mandate and al Nakba: The British census of 1922 placed the Christian Palestinian population in Jerusalem at just over 51 percent, the majority being of the well-educated mercantile class. Gradually, Zionist settlement increased the proportion of Jews in Palestine, but the Jewish presence in Jerusalem remained relatively small.

However, the hostilities that followed the UN partition vote of 28 November 1947 had a devastating effect on the Palestinian population with between 725-775,000 refugees being expelled from their ancestral lands.

Historian Sami Hadawi estimated that over 50 percent of Jerusalem’s Christians were expelled from their west Jerusalem homes, the largest single numerical decline of Christians in Palestine in history.

Hadawi’s study concluded that in Jerusalem a higher proportion of Palestinian Christians became refugees after 1949, a ratio of 37 percent of Christians to 17 percent of the Muslims. The higher ratio of Christians was due in part to the fact that the majority lived in the wealthier western Jerusalem districts seized by Israel during 1948-49. Further, approximately 34 percent of the lands seized by Israel were owned by Palestinian Christian churches, and they were simply taken by force with no compensation given to the previous owners.

Bethlehem University Sociologist Bernard Sabella reports that by 1966 Palestinian Christians had declined to 13 percent of the total Palestinian population in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, a significant decline from the 18-20 percent that had held until 1947. However, following the 1967 war and continuing until the signing of the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993, the population decline was more dramatic.

Sabella places the ratio of Palestinian Christians to Muslims at 2.1 percent in 1993. This decline was a direct reaction to the severity of the Israeli occupation and the lack of an economic, educational, vocational, and secure life in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank.

Had the 18 percent of the 1922-47 period remained, the Palestinian Christians would have numbered close to 300,000 by the early 1990s. Inside Israel, the Palestinian Christians grew to approximately 160,000 by 1993, compared to a Muslim population of 650,000. However, by the turn of the century and the second intifada, the emigration patterns continued to the extent that Christians now number only an estimated 1.6 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

If these rates continue over the next generation, Palestinian and western scholars observe that the indigenous Palestinian Christian population will be on the verge of extinction within a generation. Some call this the “museumification” of the indigenous Christians of Palestine and Israel, indicating that there will only be a small number of elderly Christians left to show churches to western tourists, but the churches will be empty, having no local community to worship and inhabit them.

Many Palestinian Christians are now stating, perhaps as an appeal to the conscience of the West, addressed especially to the people and the government of the United States, that Palestinian Christianity may die within a generation if a just peace is not implemented in Israel-Palestine soon.

The fundamental crisis for Palestinian Christians is the same as that for all Palestinians- the occupation and the brutality of Israel’s measures against the entire Palestinian community. Until the United States implements policies with full accountability which will bring Israel into compliance with UN resolutions 242 and 338, all Palestinians and Israelis will continue to suffer insecurity, economic deprivation, and death from the inhumane status quo of occupation.

What Palestinian Christians Want:

Perhaps the most succinct and accurate articulation of the Palestinian Christian position is found in the Jerusalem Sabeel Document of 2000, produced by the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. Led by the Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, former Canon of St. Georges’ Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem and Director of the Sabeel Center, this document summarizes what the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians accept as the basis for a just peace in the conflict. The document begins with a biblical and theological rationale for their position and then turns to the moral basis for their “Peace Principles.” Once a moral framework has been articulated, the document outlines the legal and political framework for a just peace. Citing UN resolutions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Fourth Geneva Convention, this framework essentially reiterates the international consensus held by every nation with the sole exceptions of Israel and the United States.

These moral, legal, and political principles state the unambiguous basis for a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Since 1948, it is estimated that approximately 50 peace proposals have been brought forth and all have failed. In some cases the United States, (often under pressure from Israel) has opposed the principles outlined in the Sabeel Document, despite the fact that the United States has been a signatory to these very principles.

Fortunately, most Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox church bodies in Europe, Canada, and the United States have now adopted official policy statements that are in complete accord with the Sabeel Principles.

The task now is to translate these national policies into active moral, spiritual, and even political advocacy by the clergy and laypersons. The mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches can make a significant difference in the near future if there is a concerted effort at education and organization, and there are some indications that the pendulum is swinging in that direction. The struggle for Palestinian rights remains a distant hope, but the official policies are now in place and the infrastructure for significant action is coming into view.

Posted on: 2002

By Father Labib Kobti

I am devastated about what is happening to the HOLIEST PLACE IN CHRISTIANITY:  The Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, the BIRTH place of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Christians of the WORLD have lost their dignity and lost the moral courage it takes to defend their holiest places. Defending does not mean sending an army, it means to stand with what is right, true and fair for the Church and the people besieged in the church without food, water, electricity and put pressure on their governments, on the USA and Israel. It is taking too long.  It is unfair. It calls for people of conscience.

Unfortunately, Christians of the worlds have been duped by Israel once again. How Arab-Christian will be able to tolerate living under such a brutal and violent occupation? This situation would create catastrophic consequences for Arab-Christians of the Holy Land. The Palestinian-Christians have been fleeing in record numbers and this is precisely the desire of the state of Israel.

Israel would like to force the Palestinian Christians out of the Holy land because it is their desire and their ultimate goal to rid the land of all Christians. This will give them the great opportunity to say to the world that the war in Palestine is a war against terrorism and make from our beloved Palestinian Muslims the target of this war. The way USA is doing in Afghanistan.

Yet, most American Christians and the Christians of the West are ignorantly being fed lies that they accept as a God given truth–that Israel’s war is simply against Muslim Palestinians using the same logic of the Taliban/Afganistan. They are ignoring that the problem is the ISRAELI OCCUPATION and it is not a war against terrorism but a resistance against Occupation. And Palestinian resistance are Christians and Muslims.

There is little that their Muslim blood brothers and sisters can do to console and defend the Palestinian Christians. Muslims from Qatar and Arab world offered to repair the destruction that the Israelis have done to the Holiest place of Christianity, the Church of the Nativity. In fact, in the Church of the Nativity, Palestinian Muslims and Christians are sharing the same food, water and defending the place against the Israelis. They are not terrorists, it is their right by international law to defend their city from occupation. The Palestinians are fighting against the evils and frustrations of Israeli occupation for over 35 years. It is a right, it is not at all a crime. That Christians of the world are unable to see this reality and exercise any pressure to save the priests, the people, and the defenders of their Holy Place, or to exert pressure on Israel to deliver food, water, medicine for the besieged make Arab-Christians in the Middle East angry. This is an indifference based on a certain racism and hatred for the Arabs, regardless of his or her religion.

Palestinian Christians of the Holy Land who have been living in harmony with Muslims for centuries feel abandoned and alone. They feel angry against the Christians in the West and specially the American Christians.

Palestinian Christians are angry at Western Christians who have abandoned them. Palestinian Christians feel that Western Christians have left them alone to face this brutal Israeli occupation simply because they are Arab Christians. This at least what many Arab-Christians have said to me as their  pastor. If we were Italian, English, Irish, Americans, Germans, French would they do the same? Imagine if Jews would besiege Notre Dame of Paris, or the Vatican, or St. Patrick in New York. Or imagine if a group of any people would besiege Jews for days inside any synagogue in the world and  deprive them from food, water, electricity and kill them with snipers. Would it be tolerated and accepted, would it take that long to save them and stand with the innocent Jews in a place of prayer? Wouldn’t the whole world move to do immediately what is fair, right and just? Why they are doing this to our Arab  Palestinians people? Why the West hates us that much? What did we do to deserve all this, what did the Palestinians do to the world? Who are we as Arab-Christians for the Christians of the West? Aren’t we the Christians of the first centuries? The Christians who translated the Bible into different languages; the first who have created monachism, and religious orders; the first fathers of the Church; the first missionaries?

At his visit on March 2000 Pope Paul II was proud of the Palestinian  Christians and their history and thanked them for what they have given to the world and praised the harmony between Muslims and Christians in the Hoy Land.

How we can as Arab Christians recall with pride these words of the Pope? How we can recall the many other speeches of the Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, pastors preachers of the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant Churches? They seem to many of the Arab Christians as just all these were words to the public opinion.

But when there should be some actions, everybody finds a way to step back and try to think what to do and when to act. What a shame?

There is a kind of acceptance between the people in the West that killing Arabs, Muslims or Christians is a good things for the world. Our people say this and repeat it. And I can understand, as an Arab Catholic priest, their frustration and after months of destruction and massacres by Israel. What the world is waiting for? For a holocaust against Arabs?
The Christian Palestinian population fleeing the Holy Land are saying to me: When Sharon visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Muslims from around the world stood proudly to defend their Holy Place and they were so angry that Sharon had to leave immediately in front to the world wide condemnation.

But what have the Christians of the world done for the holiest place on earth, the place of the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ? Nothing.  Never before in the history of the Church of the Nativity has it been attacked in this way.

Even when the Persians conquered Bethlehem in 622 they absolutely respected the holiness of the place, because they saw some mosaics that depict the magi coming from Persia.

In 1948 20% of Palestinians in the Holy Land were Christian, today, because of the Israeli occupation and its attendant violence, poverty and discrimination that number has dwindled down to 1.8%. Statistics indicate that in a few years the Holy Land will become a Christian museum with no LIVING STONES. And what is the Holy Land without the Palestinian Christians?

Without the true and oldest people of the land of Jesus Christ, descendants of the Cananites, Jesbusites, Aramites. These Arab-Christians who have been  celebrating Christmas for 2000 years and the Holy week for 2000 years. What is the Holy Land without its rightful people?

Palestinian Christians feel that the Christians of the West lack the courage and morality to stand united with them, Christian Palestinians feel that the utter contempt and disregard that Western Christians have for Christian Palestinians stems from a kind of racism against all Arab peoples.

I am so afraid that Christians of the Holy Land will be forced to abandon the land because they themselves feel so alone, so depressed so unhappy to be called Christians at the same level of the Christian of the West.

I was sent to the United States to serve the Arab-American Christian  community by my superior, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah. I have been a Pastor of the Arab-Americans in California for 10 years. I have witnessed the Arab-Christian community in San Francisco continue to grow with Christian immigrants from Ramallah, Bir-Zeit, Gifna,

Bethlehem , Jerusalem, Taybeh … coming to San Francisco to flee the ungodly Zionist occupation. Today there are more Palestinian Christians from Ramallah in San Francisco than in Ramallah itself.  What a shame?

Arab-Christians at the end are the losers, they lost their prestige, their future and their hopes. I am very concerned for them, perhaps I am so concerned because I am also an Arab Christian, I cannot rely on the non-Arab world to give a damn about the Palestinian-Christians.  I feel so ashamed of the Christians of the World.

Posted on: 2003

By Sherri Muzher,

“You mean, there are Palestinian Christians?” I am often asked, incredulously and with a renewed sense of interest in the Middle East.

I understand the confusion. All Arabs are Muslims and all Muslims are Arabs – isn’t that the popular belief? So it’s not surprising that many view the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict as Muslims versus Jews.

Unfortunately, there are those who strategically exploit this lack of knowledge for political gain or to realize “prophecy,” like Christian Conservative Gary Bauer who organized a letter of warning President Bush.

Twenty-two evangelical leaders stated in the May 19 letter that any attempt to be “evenhanded” between Israel and the Palestinians would be “morally reprehensible.” A few weeks ago, the Rev. Pat Robertson accused President Bush of imperiling Israel with Road Map, citing the Bible “which speaks very harshly of those who divide the ‘Promised Land.’”

How many potential Americans believe this? “There are 70 million of us” the Reverend Jerry Falwell explained to CBS’s Bob Simon on June 8, 2003 in a segment called ‘Zion’s Christian Soldiers.’ ”If there’s one thing that brings us together quickly, it’s whenever we begin to detect our government becoming a little anti-Israel.”

Falwell certainly proved his allegiance to Israel when he promised Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in 1998 that he and others would mobilize evangelical churches to oppose steps involving territorial concessions to the Palestinians. Palestinian evangelical pastors and theologians later responded to Falwell in a February1, 1998 letter, “Our task of sharing the love of Christ in this region is becoming increasingly difficult as our brothers and sisters in the West openly express sentiments and endorse policies that produce greater injustice and aggression against Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

Ultimately, Falwell can’t speak for all evangelical Christians but many believe the Bible promised the Jews the entire Holy Land, including the Occupied Territories. And some evangelicals also believe the second coming of Christ is contingent upon the full return of Jews to Jerusalem.

However, the fact that Palestinian Christians are united with Muslims in the goal for liberation proves that the conflict isn’t so much religious as it is nationalistic and human. Palestinian Christians have been among the most fervent players in the battle against Israeli occupation. Consider spokeswoman, Hanan Ashrawi; the award-winning literary critic, Edward Said; Jerusalem Latin Patriarchate Michel Sabbah; Melkite Reverend/Author Elias Chacour; as well as revolutionary, George Habash.

Falwell certainly proved his allegiance to Israel when he promised Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in 1998 that he and others would mobilize evangelical churches to oppose steps involving territorial concessions to the Palestinians. Palestinian evangelical pastors and theologians later responded to Falwell in a February1, 1998 letter, “Our task of sharing the love of Christ in this region is becoming increasingly difficult as our brothers and sisters in the West openly express sentiments and endorse policies that produce greater injustice and aggression against Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

Ultimately, Falwell can’t speak for all evangelical Christians but many believe the Bible promised the Jews the entire Holy Land, including the Occupied Territories. And some evangelicals also believe the second coming of Christ is contingent upon the full return of Jews to Jerusalem.

However, the fact that Palestinian Christians are united with Muslims in the goal for liberation proves that the conflict isn’t so much religious as it is nationalistic and human. Palestinian Christians have been among the most fervent players in the battle against Israeli occupation. Consider spokeswoman, Hanan Ashrawi; the award-winning literary critic, Edward Said; Jerusalem Latin Patriarchate Michel Sabbah; Melkite Reverend/Author Elias Chacour; as well as revolutionary, George Habash.

Which is it?

Source:

Palestine Chronicle

Posted on: 2004

By Rima Merriman

The news last week that the Presbyterian Church, with three million American members, not only condemned Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory but also acting, by halting investments in Israel as well as with companies that do business in Israel has been heartening to Palestinians, especially the Christians among them, who have strong feelings of abandonment by their co-religionists in the US when it comes to exerting political or economic pressure on Israel.
Despite the moral significance of this move, it’s not likely that this divestment decision will hold Israel in check unless other churches and other organisations worldwide follow suit.

The divestment campaign against apartheid South Africa, for example, pinched to the tune of $7 billion between 1986-1990 before it had some effect. The Presbyterian divestment decision means that the church will withdraw its funds from any company which earns more than $1 million annually in Israeli investments, or which invests more than $1 million a year in Israel.

Nevertheless, for Palestinian Christians, this brave decision on the part of the Presbyterian Church is a much needed moral boost. There are many programmes in Palestine run by Lutheran and Calvinist churches, which provide aid to Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian, but they work strictly within a religious framework and don’t have much political clout in the US.

Palestinian Christians have had to contend with the fact that, for some time now, 70 million Evangelists in the United States, counting among them Congressional House Majority leader, Tom DeLay, have huge political and economic clout and are allied with the pro-Israeli lobby and the neoconservatives. Christian Zionists, as they are called, base their support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and Israel’s aggressive expansion on the religious belief that the Jews must rule over all of Palestine before the proper conditions for the second coming of the Messiah are met, at which point the Jews will believe in Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and the redeemer of the world.

Orthodox Jews and others may not exactly like the ending of this story, but Israel welcomes the substantial donations lavished on it by the Christian Zionists and their strong political championship in the United States.

That the Evangelists’ fellow Christians in Palestine, the first Christians whose ancestors had listened to St. Peter’s sermons at the first Pentecost in Jerusalem, are in the meantime suffering under Israeli occupation and the Judaisation of Palestine, or in refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria, and are leaving Palestine in droves seems to make no difference to Evangelists whose literature demonises the Palestinian side of the conflict, echoing Israeli propaganda. To them, the Palestinians are made up of crazy Islamist terrorists.

In 1948, when the state of Israel was created, about 20 per cent of the total population in Palestine was Christian, 35 per cent of whom were driven out and became refugees. Now, entirely due to the Israeli occupation and the hardships that occupation have inflicted on the Palestinians, the Christian population is down to 1.8 per cent. At this rate, it is almost certain that the Holy Land will soon be devoid of living, breathing Christians. At least, that’s the spectre that father Labib Kobti, a Catholic priest in San Francisco, sees as he ministers to the hoards of Palestinian Christian immigrants from Ramallah, Birzeit, Gifna, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Taybeh.

At the Presbyterian Church’s 216th General Assembly, when the divestment decision was made, Rev. Mitri Raheb of Bethlehem spoke in strong favour of the resolution. Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League’s interfaith director, is now feeling hurt because he says the Presbyterian Church made its decision “without trying to balance or consult with the other side”.

As it happens, that’s exactly how Palestinians, Christian and Muslim, feel about American policy towards Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory — no balance except the balance of power, which the US and Israel use to force agreements on the Palestinians. The courageous Presbyterian decision has come to give a much needed moral balance to this unbalanced equation.

Source:

www.miftha.org