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Palestinian Christian,
Talk:Palestinian Christian
Palestinian Christians are
Palestinians who follow
Christianity. Comprising some 10% of the Palestinian population worldwide, they make up anywhere between 1.1 - 2.4% of the population of
Gaza and
West Bank (
Palestinian territories), and just under 2% of the population of Israel
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4499668.stm.
Most Palestinian Christians see themselves as
Arab Christians, although some rare individuals, echoing similar narratives in the
Lebanese Maronite community, reject this label and claim to be descended from people who were present before the coming of the
Arabs. The region called Palestine or Israel is considered the
Holy Land by Christians, and major Christian holy cities like
Bethlehem and
Nazareth are located in the Palestinian Autonomy and Israel respectively.
Prior to the establishment of the state of
Israel, approximately 10% of Palestine's population was
Christian. This is reflected in the large number of prominent
Palestinians that are Christian, including
Hanan Ashrawi,
Emile Habibi,
Edward Said,
Anis Shorrosh,
George Habash,
Nayef Hawatmeh, Suleiman Hodali,
Afif Safieh, and activist
Raymonda Tawil, who is also the mother of
Yassir Arafat's wife
Suha. The current Palestinian Ambassador to the United States, Afif Saffieh, is also a Holy Land Christian. However, the Christians were also often found in the more affluent segments of Palestinian society which generally fled or were expelled from the country in conjunction with the
1948 Arab-Israeli War; in West
Jerusalem, over 50% of Christians lost their homes to the advancing
Israeli army, according to the historian
Sami Haddad http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/pubs/20020312ib.html. Many Christians also have left the region in recent years due to increasing pressure from hardline groups to Islamicize the region, according to the
Christian Broadcasting Network http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/051219a.asp?option=print. Through the years, Christians have emigrated mainly to Latin America, the United States, and Canada.
Some explain the difference between Christians' and Muslims' rate of emigration not by personal preference but by the idea that Christian emigrants are usually more successful in being accepted in historically Christian Western countries than Muslim ones.
The majority of Palestinian Christians belong to the
Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, one of the 16 churches of
Eastern Orthodoxy. There are also
Maronites,
Melkites,
Jacobites,
Roman Catholics,
Syrian Catholics,
Copts and
Protestants among them. The
Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem,
Theofilos III, is the leader of Palestinian Orthodox Christians (
Greek Orthodox). The
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem,
Michel Sabah, is the leader of the Palestinian Roman Catholics. The
Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem is
Riah Abu Assal. The Bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jerusalem and Jordan is Dr.
Munib Younan.
Elias Chacour of the
Melkite Greek Catholic Church is Archbishop of
Galilee.
The British newspaper
The Telegraph published an article about an 'Islamic mafia' that has conducted a series of attacks on the Palestinian Christian community, largely in the form of land thefts. Some observers claim that this represents a pattern of deliberate mistreatment by the
Palestinian Authority; others hold that these are isolated incidents that reflect the beliefs of the individuals involved, but not the society in general.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/09/wmid09.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/09/09/ixworld.html. Separately, two
American courts, one in
Illinois and the other in
North Carolina, accepted the threat of "religious
persecution" as grounds for granting
asylum to two
Evangelical converts from
Islam fleeing PA territory
http://israelvisit.co.il/BehindTheNews/Mar-30.htm, although it is not clear if their reason for fleeing was solely due to the fact that they are converts. Converting from Islam is viewed very unfavorably in Islamic tradition.
There have also been reports of
anti-Christian incidents carried out in Israel by both private Israeli Jewish citizens (see Amnesty International feature report at
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGMDE150992004),and through policies enacted and implemented by the Israeli government itself. A recent letter from Congressman
Henry Hyde to President George W. Bush for example notes that "the Christian community is being crushed in the mill of the bitter Israeli-Palestinian conflict," and that expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are "irreversibly damaging the dwindling Christian community."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3256347,00.html http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/robertnovak/2006/05/25/198697.html The Arab Human Rights Association claims Israeli authorities have denied access to holy places, prevented repairs needed to preserve historic holy sites, and carried out physical attacks on religious leaders.
http://www.arabhra.org/publications/reports/PDF/sanctitydenied_english.pdfAfter
Pope Benedict XVI's comment of Islam, five churches, among them two
Greek Orthodox churches - as such, not affiliated with either Catholicism or the Pope - were firebombed and shot at in the West Bank and Gaza. No one was hurt.
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060916/ap_on_re_eu/pope_muslims Five churches bombed and attacked AP via Yahoo! News 16 September 2006] Palestinian Prime Minister
Ismail Haniya condemned the attacks and police presence was elevated in
Bethlehem, which has a sizable Christian community.
[cite news|title=Pope Apologizes for Remarks About Islam|publisher=New York Times|date=17 September ]
References
External links
*http://www.beliefnet.com/story/104/story_10407_1.html Beliefnet.com - What is it like to be a Palestinian Christian?
*http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/RINVol4No1/palestinian_return.htm RELIGION IN THE NEWS - Israelis and Palestinians
*http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/pubs/20020312ib.html Palestian Christians: A Historic Community at Risk?
*http://www.al-bushra.org/palestine/0palestine.htm Al-Bushra (an Arab-American Catholic perspective)
*http://www.al-bushra.org/holyland/sabella.htm PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS: CHALLENGES AND HOPES by Bernard Sabella
*http://www.saltfilms.net Salt of the Earth: Palestinian Christians in the Northern West Bank, a documentary film series
Category:Arab groups
Category:Christianity by country
Category:Palestinian people
es:Cristianos Palestinos