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