The politics behind the flight of Christians from the Holy Land

In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, Christmas has very special significance, with services and processions by all of the Christian denominations, including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Ethiopian and Armenian. Celebrations stretch over more days than usual as some of the denominations celebrate on different days.

The festive period will attract over 75,000 visitors from abroad; 25,000 of them will make a pilgrimage to Christianity’s holiest sites dispersed throughout the Holy Land: the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth; the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem are three of Christianity’s holiest sites. Thousands of pilgrims flock to these iconic places every year, as well as Galilee, where much of Jesus’s ministry took place. Churches where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus carried out miracles are also on the list of places to visit.

It’s been an unbroken custom stretching over two millennia, but now the future of Christianity in its birthplace is less certain than ever before. Some even fear that Christianity in Palestine could become the equivalent of a “Christian theme park” or a “museum of Christianity”, where thousands of Christians flock from around the world to visit the holy sites but never stay.

It’s a tragic prospect for Palestinian Christians who constitute one of the oldest Christian communities in the world; they play a key role in the history of the Christian faith and the Palestinian nation. The patron saint of England (and many other places, including Barcelona, Milan and, of course, Georgia), Saint George is believed to have been of Palestinian descent; two more recent saints canonised by Pope Francis also hail from historic Palestine.

Christians have been at the forefront in the struggle for Palestinian self-determination and resistance against Israeli occupation from the very beginning; theirs is a significant contribution to modern Palestinian identity. A display of communalism that ought to receive more attention than it does, was the co-operation between Christians and Muslims during the British Mandate era through the Arab nationalist “Muslim-Christian Union” (Al-Jamiya Al-Islamiya Al-Masihiya), which was formed in 1918 as a reaction to the infamous Balfour Declaration. Its symbol, a unified crescent moon and cross, is evidence of the non-denominational character of the Palestinian struggle for statehood.

This movement, according to a report on the role and influence of Christians in the Palestinian territories, was so popular that other organisations with the same name grew up in Nablus and other towns. Their success led to the formation of local sub-groups that became united in a central association behind the first Palestinian Arab congress, organised in Jerusalem in 1919, which was intended to lay the foundations of an independent Palestine and strengthen resistance to British rule.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Christian groups were also amongst the factions that formed the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Some of the most prominent Palestinian activists were from Christian backgrounds. George Habash, for example, was a Greek Orthodox medical doctor from Al-Lod; he established the Arab Nationalists’ Movement and went on to found the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Naif Hawatmeh, also Greek Orthodox, from Al-Salt in Jordan, founded and still heads up the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Other Palestinian Christians well-known in the West include the late Edward Said and Hanan Ashrawi, one of the Palestinian Authority’s most effective spokespersons.

This millennia-old bond between Palestine and Christianity has been put at risk in a number of ways. First and foremost, Israeli policy has fostered a climate that has created separation and segregation between communities. It has created a climate where millennial-settler Jews making an exclusive claim to the ancient sites are emboldened. The head of the extremist Jewish group Lehave, Benzi Gopstein, called this week for a ban on Christmas in the Holy Land. “Christmas has no place in the Holy Land,” he wrote. “Let us remove the vampires [Christians] before they once again drink our blood.”

Gopstein’s outrageous comment is the latest in a string of hostile attacks by sections of Israeli society harbouring poisonous theology that justifies the targeting of mosques and churches. Unchecked fanaticism and intimidation against Christians has been rising ominously over the past few years. Churches have been vandalised and the subject of arson attacks; earlier this year, the church where Jesus is believed to have multiplied loaves and fishes to “feed the 5,000” was set on fire.

According to the Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre, similar attacks against Christian organisations, churches and properties across occupied Palestine and Israel have almost doubled since 2012. Non-Jewish sites such as mosques, churches, Christian and Muslim graveyards, as well as Palestinian property and land in both the occupied territories and Israel are targeted routinely, damaged and defaced; they often bear the hallmark “price tag“, which refers to vandalism and other hate crimes carried out by right-wing Jewish extremists, supposedly in retaliation for government policies against the settler movement.

Price tag attacks and hate-filled comments by the likes of Gopstein are the unacceptable face of Israeli intolerance; they are condemned by all sections of society, including mainstream Israeli politicians. Nevertheless, the future of Christianity in Palestine is still at risk from Israel’s policy of separation and segregation, which the Zionist state has practiced routinely since its creation in the historic land of Palestine, although it has taken different shapes and forms over the years.

When the state of Israel was created in 1948, it is estimated that there were 350,000 Christians in Palestine; almost 20 per cent of the population at the time. Of the 750,000 Palestinians who were forced from their homes in the Nakba (the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that is ongoing), some 50,000 were Christians; that’s 7 per cent of the total number of refugees and 35 per cent of the total number of Christians living in Palestine at the time. Today it is believed that the number of Christians in Israel and occupied Palestine has fallen to 175,000, just over 2 per cent of the entire population, and the numbers continue to dwindle rapidly.

The reasons for the shrinking number of Christians have been the subject of much debate. Jewish leaders, who exploit every opportunity to strengthen solidarity between Israel and predominantly evangelical Christian communities around the world, have been extremely defensive when the finger of blame has been pointed at them, despite the fact that the vast majority of Christian Palestinians who left in 1948 were ethnically cleansed by Jewish terrorist groups with the full knowledge and approval of Israeli leaders like David Ben-Gurion.

The goal of Plan Dalet, argued irrefutably by Israeli historians like Ilan Pappé, was to rid Palestine of its Palestinian characteristics and turn it into a Jewish country. According to Anders Strindberg, the Haganah Jewish terrorist group attacked numerous convents, hospices, seminaries and churches, which were either destroyed or cleared of their Christian owners and custodians. Writing for the American Conservative, the Middle East expert added: “In one of the most spectacular attacks on a Christian target, on May 17, 1948, the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate was shelled with about 100 mortar rounds — launched by Zionist forces from the already occupied monastery of the Benedictine Fathers on Mount Zion. The bombardment also damaged St. Jacob’s Convent, the Archangel’s Convent, and their appended churches, their two elementary and seminary schools, as well as their libraries, killing eight people and wounding 120.”

These inconvenient historical facts are whitewashed completely to cement alliances with Christians in the West. In the CBS documentary 60 Minutes, which looked at the plight of Palestinian Christians, former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren retorted, “The only place in the Middle East where Christians aren’t endangered but flourishing is Israel.” Not only were his remarks an attempt to deflect the problem but they were also condescending towards Palestinian Christians. There is a simple test to see if his claim is true, though, and if Israel is indeed a safe haven for Christians in the Middle East.

Philip Farah, co-founder of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace, wrote in the Huffington Post: “Allow the Palestinian Christian refugees to return to their land. If your country is so good to Christians, why don’t you allow me, my family and thousands of Palestinian Christians to return to our homes in the part of Jerusalem which Israel occupied in 1967 or the western part of the city from which Palestinians were forced out in 1948? Why is it that any Jew from any country in the world can claim full rights of citizenship as soon as he or she sets foot in Jerusalem, while I, whose family [Christian] roots in Jerusalem go back many centuries, am barred from living with full human rights in my hometown?”

Oren and his ilk are in the business of hiding the truth and packaging their propaganda so that it is palatable to their Western clients, even if it means engineering society to make their case. The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed a law in February 2014 distinguishing between Muslim and Christian Arabs. Critics have argued consistently that it is a desperate attempt to divide and conquer its own Arab population. The legislation makes a distinct identity of Arab Christians in an effort to separate them from Arab Muslims. It was the first time that Christian and Muslim Arabs were separated into two distinct communities by the law in Israel.

Though this tactic may in the long run serve its purpose of putting a wedge between Muslim Palestinians and Christian Palestinians within Israel, it will make little impression on Christian Palestinians in the occupied territories and diaspora, who see themselves, and are seen by their Muslim compatriots, as an integral part of the Palestinian people and struggle. As the former Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, the Right Reverend Riah Abu El-Assal pointed out, “The Arab Palestinian Christians are part and parcel of the Arab Palestinian nation. We have the same history, the same culture, the same habits and the same hopes… [The fact is] that Christians in the holiest of Christian cities are continuing to flee because of the Israeli occupation.”

Christian Palestinians have been very active in numerous ways in the struggle for Palestinian self-determination. Particularly significant is the Kairos Document, drafted by a number of Christian Palestinian community leaders and organisations who came together to produce a statement on the struggle of their people against Israeli colonisation and occupation, and appeal for solidarity and support from Christians worldwide.

The Kairos Document is the word of Christian Palestinians to the world about what is happening in their country. This document, adds Ben White, is rooted in the lived experience of the colonised, and with an explicit call for international action, including strategies such as boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). The umbrella Christian movement announced: “We declare that the military occupation of Palestinian land constitutes a sin against God and humanity. Any theology that legitimises the occupation and justifies crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian people lies far from Christian teachings.” The signatories urged the international community “to stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle against oppression, displacement and apartheid.”

Other Christian Palestinian activism includes “Christ at the Checkpoint” conferences that have also grown in size and profile, attracting indigenous theologians and activists, as well as hundreds of international delegates, mainly from North America.

The cradle of Christianity, Bethlehem, has been divided by an illegal apartheid wall. Jerusalem, which has some of the holiest sites in Christianity within its sacred boundaries, has also been subjected to Israel’s policy of separation, land confiscation and isolation targeting all Palestinians, including Christians. The Israeli occupation authorities are refusing to give permits to Palestinian Christians aged between 12 to 30 years so that they can’t visit the holy sites.

The history of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Christians; its refusal to allow Christian refugees to return to their land; and its failure to check the rise of Jewish extremists who are burning down churches and mosques, demonstrates that there can be no doubt that it is Israel which is responsible for the slow demise of Christianity in Palestine. At this time of “peace and goodwill” at Christmas, perhaps it is worth reminding Christians around the world what support for Israel is doing to their co-religionists in Palestine, the birth-place of Christianity itself.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.