PALESTINIAN CHRISTIAN

The 'Palestinian Christians' are Palestinians who follow Christianity. In both the local dialect of Palestinian Arabic and in classical or modern standard Arabic, Christians are called ''Nasrani'' (a derivative of the Arabic word for Nazareth, ''al-Nasira'') or ''Masihi'' (from the same root as the Hebrew word for Messiah). Beyond the Basilica:Christians and Muslims in Nazareth, Chad Fife Emmett, , , University of Chicago Press, 1995, Aggregate figures on the number of Palestinian Christians today are estimates, due to the difficulty in collecting comprehensive information on the different Diaspora populations.
According to the census data collected by the Ottoman Empire, the Christian population in 1914 was 24% of the modern-day area consisting of Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey; today it is no more than 5%, ^[1] largely due to the chronic emigration of Christians and (since the 1970s) their lower birth rates. In British Mandate Palestine, Christians made up as much as 20% of the population, though some put the figure at 13%.

Contents

Denominations and leadership

History

Current events

References

External links

Denominations and leadership

Today, the majority of Palestinian Christians have emigrated to other countries. It is known that Christians make up between 40,000 and 90,000 people (1.1 to 2.4%) of the population of the Palestinian territories. Most are in the West Bank, though there is a community of 2,000 in the Gaza Strip. The related Arab Christians in Israel number between 144,000 and 196,000 (2.1 to 2.8%) of the total population,^[2] and about 8.8% of the non-Jewish Arab population.^[3]
The majority of Palestinian Christians belong to the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem one of the 16 churches of Eastern Orthodoxy. This community has also been known as the Arab Orthodox since the 1890s. There are also Maronites, Melkites, Jacobites, Roman Catholics, Syrian Catholics, Copts and Protestants among them.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theófilos III, is the leader of the Palestinian and Jordanian Greek Orthodox Christians, but he is recognized by neither Israel nor Jordan.^[4] If confirmed, he would replace Patriarch Irenaios, whose term was surrounded by controversy and scandal. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, is the leader of the Palestinian Roman Catholics. The Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem is Suheil Dawani,^[5] who recently replaced Bishop Riah Abou Al 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.

History

Estimates of the number of Arab Christians vary. Christians today make up 9.2% of the population of the Near East. In Lebanon they now number around 39% of the population, in Syria about 10 to 15%. In Palestine before the creation of Israel estimates range up to as much as 40%, but mass emigration has slashed the number still present to 3.8%. Israel Arab Christians constitute 2.1% (or roughly 10% of the Israeli Arab population). In Egypt, they constitute about 6% of the population. Around two-thirds of North and South American and Australian Arabs are Christian, particularly from Syria, the Palestinian territories, and Lebanon.
Most Palestinian Christians see themselves as Arab Christians, although some, echoing similar narratives in the Lebanese Maronite community, reject this label and claim to be descended from Levantine people who were present before the coming of the Arabs, or from Europeans who came to the region during the medieval Crusades. In addition, they may also descend from a mixture of Armenians, Byzantine, pre-Islamic Arabs (Ghassanids), and Crusaders. 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.
During the Ottoman period, the number of Christians approached 30%. Emigration to the predominantly Christian-populated areas of neighboring Lebanon, as well as South America drastically reduced the number of Christians by the beginning of the twentieth century. Prior to the independence of the state of Israel, approximately 10% of Palestine's (excluding Transjordan) Arab population was Christian. This is reflected in the large number of prominent Palestinians that are Christian, including Hanan Ashrawi, Emile Habibi, Edward Said, Elia Suleiman, Hany Abu Assad, Azmi Bishara, Anis Shorrosh, George Habash, Nayef Hawatmeh, Rifat Odeh Kassis and activist Raymonda Tawil, who is also the mother of Yassir Arafat's wife Suha.^[6] The current Palestinian Ambassador to the United States, Afif Saffieh, is also from a Christian family. However, the Christians were also often found in the more affluent segments of Palestinian society that fled or were expelled from the country during 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 Hadawi. ^[7]
Over the years, a considerable numbers of Christians have emigrated, mainly to Latin America, the United States, and Canada. The difference between Christians' and Muslims' rate of emigration may be explained in various ways, but one likely factor is that Christian emigrants find it easier to be accepted in historically Christian Western countries than do Muslim emigrants.
Other reasons for the disparity are hotly contested. Charges of extremist Muslim elements among Palestinian Muslims and feeling threatened or pressured to conform with that agenda have been cited as reasons for emigrating. Palestinian Christians Face Persecution Chris Mitchell The Palestinian Authority administration was designed as a democratic government and included Christians on many levels, but it was also marked by corruption, which partially allowed anti-Christian activities to go unpunished. Some emigration since the al-Aqsa Intifada is also blamed on the general state of conflict and hardship in the area, which was especially felt by the Christian community due to its economic involvement in tourism infrastructure. The Beleaguered Christians of the Palestinian-Controlled Areas ^[8]
The Daily Telegraph ^[9] speaks of an 'Islamic mafia' that has conducted a series of attacks on the Palestinian Christian community, particularily in the form of land thefts.

Current events

In a 2006 poll of Christians in Bethlehem by the Palestinian Centre for Research and Cultural Dialogue, 90% reported having Muslim friends, 73.3% agreed that the Palestinian Authority treats Christian heritage in the city with respect and 78% attributed the ongoing exodus of Christians from Bethlehem to the Israeli travel restriction on the area.^[10]
Two American courts, one in Illinois and the other in North Carolina, have accepted that "the Palestinian Authority was persecuting Christian" as grounds for granting asylum to two Evangelical converts from Islam fleeing PA territory.^[11] Palestinian Christians are generally sympathetic of the Palestinian cause, but often feel threatened by the heavy role of Islamic militancy in the struggle.
Palestinian Christians have a higher rate of education and a lower birth rate than their Muslim counterparts. According to the BBC, some Palestinian Christians have spoken of threats, confiscation of land, difficulties buying land, arson attacks, sexual assaults and general hostility.^[12][13]
A recent letter from Congressman Henry Hyde to President George W. Bush 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." ^{[14] [15]} 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.^[16]
After Pope Benedict XVI's comments on Islam in September 2006, 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 and no one claimed responsibility.^[17] Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya condemned the attacks and police presence was elevated in Bethlehem, which has a sizable Christian community.^[18]

References

1. The Body and the Blood: The Middle East's Vanishing Christians and the Possibility for Peace, Charles M. Sennot, , , Public Affairs, 2007,
2. Guide: Christians in the Middle East
3. POPULATION, BY RELIGION AND POPULATION GROUP
4. http://www.comeandsee.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=800
5. http://www.comeandsee.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=797
6. Israel's Purging of Palestinian Christians Jonathan Cook On this subject, Jonathan Cook writes:"the minority of Christian Palestinians who have happily lived under Muslim rule in the Holy Land for centuries. Today, in a way quite infuriating to Israel, these Christians confuse the picture by continuing to take a leading role in defining Palestinian nationalism and resistance to Israel's occupation. They prefer to side with the Muslim 'fanatics' than with Israel, the Middle East's only outpost of Judeo-Christian 'civilization.'"
7. Palestinian Christians: An Historic Community at Risk? Don Wagner
8. Associated Press, as reported in Yoram Ettinger, "The Islamization of Bethlehem by Arafat," Jerusalem Cloakroom #117, Ariel Center for Policy Research, December 25, 2001
9. 'Islamic mafia' accused of persecuting Holy Land Christians Harry de Quetteville
10. Americans not sure where Bethlehem is, survey shows
11. Palestinian Christians Win US Political Assylum Yossi Klein Halevi
12. Holy Land Christians' Decline Heather Sharp
13. Middle East Christians: Gaza pastor
14. Jesus and the Separation Fence Ofer Shelah
15. Plea for Palestinian Christians Robert Novak
16. Sanctity Denied: The Destruction and Abuse of Muslim
and Christian Holy Places in Israel
17. Five churches bombed and attacked ''AP via Yahoo! News'' 16 September 2006 (Link dead as of 15 January 2007)
18. Pope Apologizes for Remarks About Islam

External links

★ Bethlehem University

★ Wusul.com - Gathering Middle East Christians

★ Beliefnet.com - What is it like to be a Palestinian Christian?

★ RELIGION IN THE NEWS - Israelis and Palestinians

★ Palestian Christians: A Historic Community at Risk?

★ Al-Bushra (an Arab-American Catholic perspective)

★ PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS: CHALLENGES AND HOPES by Bernard Sabella

★ A Christian-Free Holy Land

★ Salt of the Earth: Palestinian Christians in the Northern West Bank, a documentary film series

★ HOLY LAND: CHRISTIANS IN PERIL, a documentary film by Pierre Rehov

★
★ Film trailer