Palestinian Christian

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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).^[1] 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%, ^[2] 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%.^[2]

[edit] Denominations and leadership

Today, the majority of Palestinian Christians form part of the Palestinian diaspora. It is known that Christians make up between 40,000 and 90,000 people, or 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, or 2.1 to 2.8% of the total population,^[3] and about 8.8% of the non-Jewish Arab population.^[4]

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, Anglicans and other Protestants among them.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theófilos III, is the leader of the Palestinian and Jordanian Greek Orthodox Christians, but Israel has refused to recognize his appointment.^[5] If confirmed, he would replace Patriarch Irenaios, who was deposed after a term surrounded by controversy and scandal. The Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem is Theodosios (Hanna) of Sebastia. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, is the leader of the Palestinian Roman Catholics. The Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem is Suheil Dawani,^[6] 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.

[edit] 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 Lebanon, but also from the Palestinian territories, and Syria.

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, Jews who converted to Christianity in the first 3 centuries AD, Byzantine, pre-Islamic Arabs (Ghassanids), and Crusaders.^{[citation needed]} 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, Atallah Mansour, Azmi Bishara, Anis Shorrosh^[7], George Habash, Nayef Hawatmeh, Rifat Odeh Kassis and activist Raymonda Tawil, who is also the mother of Yassir Arafat's wife Suha.^[8] 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. ^[9]

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. Within Israel itself, the policies enacted and implemented by the Israeli government are also considered to be a contributory factor. According to the Arab Human Rights Association, Israeli authorities have denied access to holy places, prevented repairs needed to preserve historic holy sites, and carried out physical attacks on religious leaders.^[10]

According to the Christian Broadcasting Network, feeling threatened or pressured to conform to the agenda of fundamentalist Islamic elements among Palestinians has been cited as a reason for emigration from territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority.^[11] The Palestinian Authority administration, which was designed as a democratic government and includes Christians at many levels, has also been marked by weakness and corruption, which allowed some anti-Christian activities to go unpunished.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[12][13] According to Amnesty International, Israeli settlers in the West Bank have attacked members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams while they were escorting Palestinian children to school, precisely to prevent such incidents.^[14]

Palestinian Christians celebrating the Eve of the Epiphany (Paramony) at Bethabara, on the Western bank of the Jordan River (West Bank, near Jericho), in Eastern Orthodox tradition.

[edit] Current events

See also: Bethlehem#Christian minority

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 restrictions on the area.^[15]

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." ^{[16] [17]}

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.^[18] Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya condemned the attacks and police presence was elevated in Bethlehem, which has a sizable Christian community.^[19]

The proportions of Christians in the Palestinian territories have dropped from 15 percent in 1950 to over just 2 percent today.

Both Bethlehem and Nazareth, which were once overwhelmingly Christian, now have strong Muslim majorities. Today about three-fourths of all Bethlehem Christians live abroad, and more Jerusalem Christians live in Sydney, Australia than in Jerusalem. Indeed, Christians now comprise just 2.5 percent of Jerusalem, although those remaining still include a few born in the Old City when Christians there still constituted a majority.^[20]

In Gaza, there is a small Christian minority of about 3000 people, among a population of 1,500,000. After the Fatah-Hamas conflict in February 2006, a number of Christian shops, such as Internet cafes, pharmacies and music stores, were attacked by unknown assailants.^[21] Some of these attacks have been claimed by a little-known extremist Islamic organization, calling itself the Swords of Truth.^[21] On October 6, 2007, Rami Ayyad, the manager of the only Christian bookshop in Gaza and a member of the Baptist Church was found murdered.^[22]. No group claimed responsibility for the killing, and no one has openly accused Hamas of persecution. Hamas spokeman, Fawzi Barhoum, said Hamas would "not spare any effort to find the culprits of this crime and bring them to justice."^[23] In February 2008, fourteen gunmen attacked the YMCA in Gaza which serves Palestinians of all religious denominations.^[24]. Bombs were planted in the office and library and one of the devices was detonated, destroying thousands of books. There were no injuries or fatalities.^[24]

[edit] References

[edit] 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
• Hard Time in the House of Bread
• Palestinian 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