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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.
Don Wagner is associate
professor of Religion and Middle Eastern Studies, and executive
director of the
Center
for Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University
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