25 apr 2012
serving his country and protecting it, pointing out that the channel should have broadcast reports on the situation of Christians in other countries in the region.
The channel aired last night, the report unveiling the policy of the Zionist entity to displace Palestinian Christians from the Holy Land revealing the harassment and oppression by the occupation that Christians face and that turns their lives into hell.
The Zionist ambassador told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who intervened with the channel’s management to stop the airing of the report, that if the report contains the information he was told it contains then it would be a strategic disaster for our relations with United States' Christians.
The Hebrew Ha'aretz newspaper pointed the ambassador had tried to mitigate the impact of the report through publishing, in advance, a press release in an American newspaper talking about the religious freedom that Christians enjoy in the Palestinian territories, "contrarily to the oppression they face in the Arab world" as he said. The newspaper refused to publish the reactions of Christians from Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
The channel aired last night, the report unveiling the policy of the Zionist entity to displace Palestinian Christians from the Holy Land revealing the harassment and oppression by the occupation that Christians face and that turns their lives into hell.
The Zionist ambassador told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who intervened with the channel’s management to stop the airing of the report, that if the report contains the information he was told it contains then it would be a strategic disaster for our relations with United States' Christians.
The Hebrew Ha'aretz newspaper pointed the ambassador had tried to mitigate the impact of the report through publishing, in advance, a press release in an American newspaper talking about the religious freedom that Christians enjoy in the Palestinian territories, "contrarily to the oppression they face in the Arab world" as he said. The newspaper refused to publish the reactions of Christians from Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
Christian group blasts Israeli ambassador Oren
he Kairos, an international Christian NGO group, with branches in 45 nations, has condemned Israeli ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren’s last month Op-Ed piece published in the Wall Street Journal (March 9, 2012). The WSJ is owned by the disgraced media-tycon Israel-Firster Rupert Murdoch.
“In this inaccurate and manipulative text, Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the US, blames the plight of Palestinian Christians on oppression at the hands of Palestinian Muslims – rather than at the hands of the illegal Israeli occupation itself, as is our reality,” said Kairos Palestine statement dated March 17, 2012.
In the Op-Ed Michael Oren also blamed Muslims for the Christian exodus from Palestine. The lying Zionist ignored the historical fact that both Muslim majority and Christian minority lived in almost peace for over 1200 years before the creation of the Zionist entity in May 1948. Even at that time, Christians made 15% of the population which has reduced to less than 4% under Israeli rule during the last six decades. According to Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (2010). the Christians make 1.66% under Jewish rule while 2% under Muslim rule in Gaza and the West Bank.
Jew racists like Oren don’t like the Christian world to know that while Jewish Holy Book Talmud curses Jesus, his mother Saint Mary and the Christians at large – Muslim Holy Qur’an declares both Jesus and his mother as Allah’s chosen people like David and Moses. Unlike Israel, Christian priests are not spit on their faces in Muslim-majority Gaza Strip and the West Bank – nor copies of Christian Bible (NT) are reported burned.
Michael Oren, like any Zionist bigot, claimed Israel to be a democratic state. Interestingly, last year, Oren’s fellow Israeli Jew columnist, Gideon Levy, called Israel a half democracy.
“What sort of democracy is this, if exactly half the state’s residents don’t benefit from it? Indeed, can the term “democratic” be applied to a state in which many of the residents live under a military regime or are deprived of civil rights? Can there be democracy without equality, with a lengthy occupation and with foreign workers who have no rights? And what about the racism?,” wrote Gideon in Israeli daily Ha’aretz.
“In this inaccurate and manipulative text, Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the US, blames the plight of Palestinian Christians on oppression at the hands of Palestinian Muslims – rather than at the hands of the illegal Israeli occupation itself, as is our reality,” said Kairos Palestine statement dated March 17, 2012.
In the Op-Ed Michael Oren also blamed Muslims for the Christian exodus from Palestine. The lying Zionist ignored the historical fact that both Muslim majority and Christian minority lived in almost peace for over 1200 years before the creation of the Zionist entity in May 1948. Even at that time, Christians made 15% of the population which has reduced to less than 4% under Israeli rule during the last six decades. According to Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (2010). the Christians make 1.66% under Jewish rule while 2% under Muslim rule in Gaza and the West Bank.
Jew racists like Oren don’t like the Christian world to know that while Jewish Holy Book Talmud curses Jesus, his mother Saint Mary and the Christians at large – Muslim Holy Qur’an declares both Jesus and his mother as Allah’s chosen people like David and Moses. Unlike Israel, Christian priests are not spit on their faces in Muslim-majority Gaza Strip and the West Bank – nor copies of Christian Bible (NT) are reported burned.
Michael Oren, like any Zionist bigot, claimed Israel to be a democratic state. Interestingly, last year, Oren’s fellow Israeli Jew columnist, Gideon Levy, called Israel a half democracy.
“What sort of democracy is this, if exactly half the state’s residents don’t benefit from it? Indeed, can the term “democratic” be applied to a state in which many of the residents live under a military regime or are deprived of civil rights? Can there be democracy without equality, with a lengthy occupation and with foreign workers who have no rights? And what about the racism?,” wrote Gideon in Israeli daily Ha’aretz.
Hanna Massad, pastor of Gaza Baptist Church, says: “The last 5 years have been very difficult for all the Palestinians – Muslims and Christians“. Gaza Baptist Church is one of only three churches serving the 4,000 Christians living among the Gaza Strip’s 1.5 million inhabitants. Hanna explains how the siege united the community. Because of the lack of basic food, Christian charities have provided food for families, 99% of which are Muslim. During the 2009 bombings, “the church ceiling fell down up to 6 times“
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With all the Jewish religious hatred toward Christianity – Oren still boasted Israeli society’s tolerance toward Christian community. In 2008, Rev. Gary Cass, of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission summed up the plight of Christian minority in Israel.”Will McCain and Obama turn a blind eye to the suffering of Christians in Israel?
Both Obama and McCain say they want change, but do either of them have the courage to challenge the powerful Jewish lobby in America? Will either of them demand true religious liberty for Christians and all faiths in Israel as a condition of American support of Israel, including the right of Christians to share their faith with Jews?”
In February 2012, Christians visiting the Baptist House church in central Jerusalem for Sunday Mass were greeted with anti-Christian graffiti painted in Hebrew on the outside wall. The graffiti, when translated in English, means “We will (Jesus) crucify you” and “Death to Christians” – and crude insults against Jesus and his mother Saint Mary (reported by AFP). In addition to the gaffiti, tyres of three cars parked near by were slashed.
Palestinian Christian minority played prominent part in arm struggle against Jewish occupation of Palestine. On December 1967 – Christian George Habash established the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). It has refused to recognize the Zionist entity and left PLO for signing the notorious Oslo Accords. PFLP political leadership resides in Syria with members in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria. It’s committed to establishment of ‘One Palestine State‘ under democratic-socialist order with equal rights for all its citizens – both Natives and foreign Jews.
In 1968, Pope Cyril VI banned the travel of Egyptian Copts to East Jerusalem until it’s liberated from the Jewish occupation.
Both Obama and McCain say they want change, but do either of them have the courage to challenge the powerful Jewish lobby in America? Will either of them demand true religious liberty for Christians and all faiths in Israel as a condition of American support of Israel, including the right of Christians to share their faith with Jews?”
In February 2012, Christians visiting the Baptist House church in central Jerusalem for Sunday Mass were greeted with anti-Christian graffiti painted in Hebrew on the outside wall. The graffiti, when translated in English, means “We will (Jesus) crucify you” and “Death to Christians” – and crude insults against Jesus and his mother Saint Mary (reported by AFP). In addition to the gaffiti, tyres of three cars parked near by were slashed.
Palestinian Christian minority played prominent part in arm struggle against Jewish occupation of Palestine. On December 1967 – Christian George Habash established the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). It has refused to recognize the Zionist entity and left PLO for signing the notorious Oslo Accords. PFLP political leadership resides in Syria with members in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria. It’s committed to establishment of ‘One Palestine State‘ under democratic-socialist order with equal rights for all its citizens – both Natives and foreign Jews.
In 1968, Pope Cyril VI banned the travel of Egyptian Copts to East Jerusalem until it’s liberated from the Jewish occupation.
8 apr 2012
Pope Calls to Resume Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations
Pope Benedict XVI Sunday called the Palestinian and Israeli leaders to courageously resume the peace negotiations, during the Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.
The Pope expressed his hope that people in the Middle East of different races, ethnicities, religions and cultures can cooperate with each other for the sake of public good and human rights.
The Pope expressed his hope that people in the Middle East of different races, ethnicities, religions and cultures can cooperate with each other for the sake of public good and human rights.
7 apr 2012
Arab Christians Denied Chance to Celebrate Good Friday
While Christians from all over the world were able to attend the Good Friday celebrations in the Old City of Jerusalem, Palestinian Christians were denied this opportunity.
Israel has imposed a total closure on the occupied territories preventing Christians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip the chance to reach East Jerusalem to participate in the Good Friday procession.
Military-issued permits granted to Christians that would have allowed them to reach Jerusalem to celebrate Easter were cancelled as Israel has imposed a total closure on the occupied territories while Jews celebrate Passover, which starts Friday night.
Pilgrims gathered at the Umarrya school inside Lions Gate and from there marched to the Holy Sepulcher carrying small and large size crosses.
The Arab Christians from Jerusalem and inside Israel, who participated in the procession, carried a large cross and sang hymns as they walked along Via Delarosa on their way to the Holy Sepulcher Church.
Christians from various countries around the world arrived in Jerusalem to celebrate this important day in the Easter holy week, which culminates with Easter Sunday.
At a sermon during the Last Supper mass on Thursday at the Holy Sepulcher, Latin Patriarch Twal said Palestinians in the Holy Land are still suffering from restrictions.
“For us who live in this Holy Land, Christ continues to suffer in the members of his mystical body: every day we are confronted by the absence of freedom of movement and peace, frustrations, suffering, and even martyrdom,” he said.
“These living conditions wound us in our innermost soul. We hunger and thirst so much for justice and peace, we dream of leading a simple normal life. We are prisoners of hate, of mistrust and the fear of men towards one another,” added Twal.
Followers of the Orthodox Church mark Easter a week later.
Israel has imposed a total closure on the occupied territories preventing Christians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip the chance to reach East Jerusalem to participate in the Good Friday procession.
Military-issued permits granted to Christians that would have allowed them to reach Jerusalem to celebrate Easter were cancelled as Israel has imposed a total closure on the occupied territories while Jews celebrate Passover, which starts Friday night.
Pilgrims gathered at the Umarrya school inside Lions Gate and from there marched to the Holy Sepulcher carrying small and large size crosses.
The Arab Christians from Jerusalem and inside Israel, who participated in the procession, carried a large cross and sang hymns as they walked along Via Delarosa on their way to the Holy Sepulcher Church.
Christians from various countries around the world arrived in Jerusalem to celebrate this important day in the Easter holy week, which culminates with Easter Sunday.
At a sermon during the Last Supper mass on Thursday at the Holy Sepulcher, Latin Patriarch Twal said Palestinians in the Holy Land are still suffering from restrictions.
“For us who live in this Holy Land, Christ continues to suffer in the members of his mystical body: every day we are confronted by the absence of freedom of movement and peace, frustrations, suffering, and even martyrdom,” he said.
“These living conditions wound us in our innermost soul. We hunger and thirst so much for justice and peace, we dream of leading a simple normal life. We are prisoners of hate, of mistrust and the fear of men towards one another,” added Twal.
Followers of the Orthodox Church mark Easter a week later.
19 mar 2012
Christian leaders: Israeli ambassador 'masks reality'
Kairos Palestine, a group of Palestinian Christians, denounces Michael Oren's recent op-ed "Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians," published in The Wall Street Journal.
In this inaccurate and manipulative text, Oren, Israel's ambassador to the US, blames the plight of Palestinian Christians on oppression at the hands of Palestinian Muslims -- rather than at the hands of the illegal Israeli occupation itself, as is our reality.
We add our voices to several other responses that have emphasized this reality and the ways in which Oren's op-ed attempts to mask it. Indeed, contrary to his assertions, Christian persecution is caused mainly by the occupation that systematically degrades all Palestinians, restricts our movement, confiscates our land, devastates our economy, and violates our rights -- including the very basic right to a decent life.
We are particularly troubled by Oren's attribution of migration within the Palestinian Christian community to ill-treatment by Palestinian Muslims. This damaging analysis willfully ignores the underlying political oppression that afflicts Christians and Muslims alike.
In the case of Bethlehem, for instance, it is in fact the rampant construction of Israeli settlements, the choke-hold imposed by the separation wall, and the Israeli government's confiscation of Palestinian land -- largely Christian-owned land in the Bethlehem area -- that has driven many Christians to leave. At present, a mere 13 percent of Bethlehem-area land is left to its Palestinian inhabitants.
Oren’s article also reveals a disturbing conception of democracy itself, especially as he insists on emphasizing Israel's democratic character. In attempting to highlight ways in which Israel supposedly seeks to protect the survival and encourage the prosperity of the Christian community, Oren implies the Israeli state's lack of interest in ensuring the same for Muslims.
Democracy is not selective. Any democratic state that bothered to implement its own ideals -- and, moreover, any ambassador to such a state -- would be ashamed of such an evidently distorted attitude toward its inhabitants and their rights.
We are equally amazed by Oren's ludicrous boast that Israel, "in spite of its need to safeguard its borders from terrorists, allows holiday access to Jerusalem's churches to Christians." Indeed, one of occupation's chief outrages is the fact that anyone would need a permit to visit the city to begin with: restricted freedom of movement is among the fundamental injustices constricting our lives. Furthermore, permits are not granted to everyone (including on religious holidays); even when granted, the Israeli military may void them at any time.
We also question the timing of Oren’s article and its dogged attempt to portray the state of Israel as tolerant of Christians -- an assertion whose fallacy we experience on a daily basis.
Oren begins his text with a description of Hamas graffiti on the walls of a Bethlehem church in 1994. But he certainly doesn’t mention the Hebrew graffiti ("death to Christians," "Jesus is dead," and "price tag,") sprayed on the walls of churches in Jerusalem just a few days ago, and again last month.
The writing, so to speak, is on the wall, and it will take much more than Oren's whitewashing to mask the hostility to which Palestinian Christians -- and all Palestinians -- are subjected in the contemporary reality of occupation.
At every level, Oren's finger-pointing must be analyzed with an eye to the root causes he refuses to expose. For one thing, when he mentions the Church of the Nativity being inhabited and looted by gunmen, he neglects to mention the Israeli tanks shooting at the church from the outside.
For another, while he goes on about present-day religious tension, he neglects to say that Christians and Muslims lived together for the past 1,500 years without major problems -- and that, upon the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, we lost more than 100,000 Christians virtually overnight.
And the strongest, deepest roots of all -- the roots of empire and colonialism? These, too, go unacknowledged. The US invasion of Iraq, for instance, has done graver damage to Christian-Muslim relations across the world than anything that appears in Oren's article.
As Kairos Palestine, we refuse to be marginalized in the way Oren defines our marginalization. We refuse to be pitted against our Palestinian Muslim neighbors and friends. And we refuse to let our collective oppression be manipulated in a way that fragments us, obscures us, or masks the oppression's true cause, which is the Israeli occupation.
Kairos Palestine is a group of Palestinian Christian leaders who co-authored the document "A Moment of Truth" to galvanize Christian communities around the world to end the Israeli occupation.
In this inaccurate and manipulative text, Oren, Israel's ambassador to the US, blames the plight of Palestinian Christians on oppression at the hands of Palestinian Muslims -- rather than at the hands of the illegal Israeli occupation itself, as is our reality.
We add our voices to several other responses that have emphasized this reality and the ways in which Oren's op-ed attempts to mask it. Indeed, contrary to his assertions, Christian persecution is caused mainly by the occupation that systematically degrades all Palestinians, restricts our movement, confiscates our land, devastates our economy, and violates our rights -- including the very basic right to a decent life.
We are particularly troubled by Oren's attribution of migration within the Palestinian Christian community to ill-treatment by Palestinian Muslims. This damaging analysis willfully ignores the underlying political oppression that afflicts Christians and Muslims alike.
In the case of Bethlehem, for instance, it is in fact the rampant construction of Israeli settlements, the choke-hold imposed by the separation wall, and the Israeli government's confiscation of Palestinian land -- largely Christian-owned land in the Bethlehem area -- that has driven many Christians to leave. At present, a mere 13 percent of Bethlehem-area land is left to its Palestinian inhabitants.
Oren’s article also reveals a disturbing conception of democracy itself, especially as he insists on emphasizing Israel's democratic character. In attempting to highlight ways in which Israel supposedly seeks to protect the survival and encourage the prosperity of the Christian community, Oren implies the Israeli state's lack of interest in ensuring the same for Muslims.
Democracy is not selective. Any democratic state that bothered to implement its own ideals -- and, moreover, any ambassador to such a state -- would be ashamed of such an evidently distorted attitude toward its inhabitants and their rights.
We are equally amazed by Oren's ludicrous boast that Israel, "in spite of its need to safeguard its borders from terrorists, allows holiday access to Jerusalem's churches to Christians." Indeed, one of occupation's chief outrages is the fact that anyone would need a permit to visit the city to begin with: restricted freedom of movement is among the fundamental injustices constricting our lives. Furthermore, permits are not granted to everyone (including on religious holidays); even when granted, the Israeli military may void them at any time.
We also question the timing of Oren’s article and its dogged attempt to portray the state of Israel as tolerant of Christians -- an assertion whose fallacy we experience on a daily basis.
Oren begins his text with a description of Hamas graffiti on the walls of a Bethlehem church in 1994. But he certainly doesn’t mention the Hebrew graffiti ("death to Christians," "Jesus is dead," and "price tag,") sprayed on the walls of churches in Jerusalem just a few days ago, and again last month.
The writing, so to speak, is on the wall, and it will take much more than Oren's whitewashing to mask the hostility to which Palestinian Christians -- and all Palestinians -- are subjected in the contemporary reality of occupation.
At every level, Oren's finger-pointing must be analyzed with an eye to the root causes he refuses to expose. For one thing, when he mentions the Church of the Nativity being inhabited and looted by gunmen, he neglects to mention the Israeli tanks shooting at the church from the outside.
For another, while he goes on about present-day religious tension, he neglects to say that Christians and Muslims lived together for the past 1,500 years without major problems -- and that, upon the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, we lost more than 100,000 Christians virtually overnight.
And the strongest, deepest roots of all -- the roots of empire and colonialism? These, too, go unacknowledged. The US invasion of Iraq, for instance, has done graver damage to Christian-Muslim relations across the world than anything that appears in Oren's article.
As Kairos Palestine, we refuse to be marginalized in the way Oren defines our marginalization. We refuse to be pitted against our Palestinian Muslim neighbors and friends. And we refuse to let our collective oppression be manipulated in a way that fragments us, obscures us, or masks the oppression's true cause, which is the Israeli occupation.
Kairos Palestine is a group of Palestinian Christian leaders who co-authored the document "A Moment of Truth" to galvanize Christian communities around the world to end the Israeli occupation.
15 mar 2012
Analysis: How Israel really treats Christians
Christian Palestinians leave Erez border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip Dec. 22, 2011, as they make their way to the West Bank town of Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas. The Israeli army gave permits to some 500 Christians from Gaza to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem.
By Fida Jiryis
In a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, "Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians," Ambassador Michael Oren presents Israel as a tolerant, dove-like, and peaceful democracy. This is belied by the facts.
I am one of those Palestinian Christians living inside Israel to whom Oren refers. At no time in my life have I ever felt the "respect and appreciation" of the Jewish state, which Oren so glowingly references.
Israel's Christian minority is marginalized in much the same manner as its Muslim one or, at best, quietly tolerated. We suffer the same discrimination when we try to find a job, when we go to hospitals, when we apply for bank loans, and when we get on the bus -- in the same way as Palestinian Muslims.
Israel's fundamental basis is as a racist state built for Jews only, and the majority of the Jewish population doesn't really care what religion we are if we're not Jewish. In my daily dealings with the State, all I have felt is rudeness and overt contempt.
Oren's statement that "The extinction of the Middle East's Christian communities is an injustice of historic magnitude" is outright shocking to anyone familiar with even the basic history of how Israel was founded.
I would like to remind Oren and others that this founding expelled thousands of Palestinian Christians from their homes in 1948 and displaced them, either forcing them to flee across the border or making them internal refugees. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that comprised the founding of Israel is, too, an injustice of historic magnitude. A man living in a glass house -- or a house stolen from Palestinians -- should think very carefully before tossing stones.
My cousin's husband, Maher, is from Iqrith, a village a few miles from mine in the Galilee. His family, and all of Iqrith's inhabitants, were expelled from their village in 1948 and Iqrith was razed to the ground by Israeli forces on Christmas eve, 1950, in a special "Christmas gift" to its people. The timing of this destruction leaves one to wonder at the intended message.
Maher was born years after his family took shelter in Rama, a village nearby in the Galilee. Today, he struggles with finding a place to build a house to live in with his wife and children. Israeli policies that severely restrict the building zones in Arab towns and villages result in land shortages impeding the population's natural expansion. Limiting land to residents of the same town or village means that internal Palestinian refugees face severe housing discrimination.
The return of people like Maher has been made impossible by Israel, which refuses to negotiate on the right of refugees to return to their homeland. If Oren is so concerned for Palestinian Christians, would he kindly give the green light for the return of Christian refugees from Iqrith, Birim, Tarshiha, Suhmata, Haifa, Jaffa, and tens of other Palestinian towns and villages that they were expelled from in 1948?
The answer, I assure you, is no. Many of these refugees are living in refugee camps in nearby countries, where Israel and Oren are happy to leave them.
The terrorists referred to in Oren's statement that "Israel, in spite of its need to safeguard its borders from terrorists, allows holiday access to Jerusalem's churches to Christians from both the West Bank and Gaza," are in fact Palestinian Christians living on the land that Israel has occupied -- in flagrant opposition to all human rights charters -- and from which it is refusing to withdraw its soldiers and illegal settlers.
To applaud Israel for giving people permits to travel across what by law is their own country is the height of hubris.
His claim that "In Jerusalem, the number of Arabs -- among them Christians -- has tripled since the city's reunification by Israel in 1967" fails to mention Israel's relentless policies of cracking down on Jerusalem: building unending settlements; building a separation wall that slices right through the city, severing its families, neighborhoods and businesses and hitting hard at its Arab economy; seizing Arab lands and expelling families that have lived on them for generations; and revoking the citizenship of any Palestinian resident who travels abroad for too long.
Imagine the outcry if an American citizen traveled abroad for two years and upon return discovered that his citizenship was revoked and that he had lost his American ID and passport.
Israeli officials don't care whether the Palestinians they discriminate against are Christian or Muslim. It is true that inter-religious strife is on the rise in a region long tormented by poor living conditions, for which the West bears significant responsibility having aided the region's many dictators.
Oren's faux tolerance and crocodile tears over the plight of Christians fool no one. Were he serious, I would urge him to have a close look at Israel's policies of occupation and racial discrimination.
As Jesus said in Matthew 7:3, "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"
Fida Jiryis is a Palestinian writer from the Arab village of Fassuta in the Galilee. She is the author of the forthcoming book, My Return to Galilee, which chronicles her return from the Diaspora to Israel.
By Fida Jiryis
In a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, "Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians," Ambassador Michael Oren presents Israel as a tolerant, dove-like, and peaceful democracy. This is belied by the facts.
I am one of those Palestinian Christians living inside Israel to whom Oren refers. At no time in my life have I ever felt the "respect and appreciation" of the Jewish state, which Oren so glowingly references.
Israel's Christian minority is marginalized in much the same manner as its Muslim one or, at best, quietly tolerated. We suffer the same discrimination when we try to find a job, when we go to hospitals, when we apply for bank loans, and when we get on the bus -- in the same way as Palestinian Muslims.
Israel's fundamental basis is as a racist state built for Jews only, and the majority of the Jewish population doesn't really care what religion we are if we're not Jewish. In my daily dealings with the State, all I have felt is rudeness and overt contempt.
Oren's statement that "The extinction of the Middle East's Christian communities is an injustice of historic magnitude" is outright shocking to anyone familiar with even the basic history of how Israel was founded.
I would like to remind Oren and others that this founding expelled thousands of Palestinian Christians from their homes in 1948 and displaced them, either forcing them to flee across the border or making them internal refugees. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that comprised the founding of Israel is, too, an injustice of historic magnitude. A man living in a glass house -- or a house stolen from Palestinians -- should think very carefully before tossing stones.
My cousin's husband, Maher, is from Iqrith, a village a few miles from mine in the Galilee. His family, and all of Iqrith's inhabitants, were expelled from their village in 1948 and Iqrith was razed to the ground by Israeli forces on Christmas eve, 1950, in a special "Christmas gift" to its people. The timing of this destruction leaves one to wonder at the intended message.
Maher was born years after his family took shelter in Rama, a village nearby in the Galilee. Today, he struggles with finding a place to build a house to live in with his wife and children. Israeli policies that severely restrict the building zones in Arab towns and villages result in land shortages impeding the population's natural expansion. Limiting land to residents of the same town or village means that internal Palestinian refugees face severe housing discrimination.
The return of people like Maher has been made impossible by Israel, which refuses to negotiate on the right of refugees to return to their homeland. If Oren is so concerned for Palestinian Christians, would he kindly give the green light for the return of Christian refugees from Iqrith, Birim, Tarshiha, Suhmata, Haifa, Jaffa, and tens of other Palestinian towns and villages that they were expelled from in 1948?
The answer, I assure you, is no. Many of these refugees are living in refugee camps in nearby countries, where Israel and Oren are happy to leave them.
The terrorists referred to in Oren's statement that "Israel, in spite of its need to safeguard its borders from terrorists, allows holiday access to Jerusalem's churches to Christians from both the West Bank and Gaza," are in fact Palestinian Christians living on the land that Israel has occupied -- in flagrant opposition to all human rights charters -- and from which it is refusing to withdraw its soldiers and illegal settlers.
To applaud Israel for giving people permits to travel across what by law is their own country is the height of hubris.
His claim that "In Jerusalem, the number of Arabs -- among them Christians -- has tripled since the city's reunification by Israel in 1967" fails to mention Israel's relentless policies of cracking down on Jerusalem: building unending settlements; building a separation wall that slices right through the city, severing its families, neighborhoods and businesses and hitting hard at its Arab economy; seizing Arab lands and expelling families that have lived on them for generations; and revoking the citizenship of any Palestinian resident who travels abroad for too long.
Imagine the outcry if an American citizen traveled abroad for two years and upon return discovered that his citizenship was revoked and that he had lost his American ID and passport.
Israeli officials don't care whether the Palestinians they discriminate against are Christian or Muslim. It is true that inter-religious strife is on the rise in a region long tormented by poor living conditions, for which the West bears significant responsibility having aided the region's many dictators.
Oren's faux tolerance and crocodile tears over the plight of Christians fool no one. Were he serious, I would urge him to have a close look at Israel's policies of occupation and racial discrimination.
As Jesus said in Matthew 7:3, "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"
Fida Jiryis is a Palestinian writer from the Arab village of Fassuta in the Galilee. She is the author of the forthcoming book, My Return to Galilee, which chronicles her return from the Diaspora to Israel.
9 mar 2012
Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians
A damaged crucifix survives the burning of a Greek-Orthodox church in Tulkarem in the West Bank on Sept. 17, 2006
By MICHAEL OREN
The church in Bethlehem had survived more than 1,000 years, through wars and conquests, but its future now seemed in jeopardy. Spray-painted all over its ancient stone walls were the Arabic letters for Hamas. The year was 1994 and the city was about to pass from Israeli to Palestinian control. I was meeting with the church's clergy as an Israeli government adviser on inter-religious affairs. They were despondent but too frightened to file a complaint. The same Hamas thugs who had desecrated their sanctuary were liable to take their lives.
The trauma of those priests is now commonplace among Middle Eastern Christians. Their share of the region's population has plunged from 20% a century ago to less than 5% today and falling. In Egypt, 200,000 Coptic Christians fled their homes last year after beatings and massacres by Muslim extremist mobs.
Since 2003, 70 Iraqi churches have been burned and nearly a thousand Christians killed in Baghdad alone, causing more than half of this million-member community to flee. Conversion to Christianity is a capital offense in Iran, where last month Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death. Saudi Arabia outlaws private Christian prayer.
By MICHAEL OREN
The church in Bethlehem had survived more than 1,000 years, through wars and conquests, but its future now seemed in jeopardy. Spray-painted all over its ancient stone walls were the Arabic letters for Hamas. The year was 1994 and the city was about to pass from Israeli to Palestinian control. I was meeting with the church's clergy as an Israeli government adviser on inter-religious affairs. They were despondent but too frightened to file a complaint. The same Hamas thugs who had desecrated their sanctuary were liable to take their lives.
The trauma of those priests is now commonplace among Middle Eastern Christians. Their share of the region's population has plunged from 20% a century ago to less than 5% today and falling. In Egypt, 200,000 Coptic Christians fled their homes last year after beatings and massacres by Muslim extremist mobs.
Since 2003, 70 Iraqi churches have been burned and nearly a thousand Christians killed in Baghdad alone, causing more than half of this million-member community to flee. Conversion to Christianity is a capital offense in Iran, where last month Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death. Saudi Arabia outlaws private Christian prayer.
Graffiti on church says: Death to Christianity
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As 800,000 Jews were once expelled from Arab countries, so are Christians being forced from lands they've inhabited for centuries.
The only place in the Middle East where Christians aren't endangered but flourishing is Israel. Since Israel's founding in 1948, its Christian communities (including Russian and Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians and Protestants) have expanded more than 1,000%. Christians are prominent in all aspects of Israeli life, serving in the Knesset, the Foreign Ministry and on the Supreme Court. |
They are exempt from military service, but thousands have volunteered and been sworn in on special New Testaments printed in Hebrew. Israeli Arab Christians are on average more affluent than Israeli Jews and better-educated, even scoring higher on their SATs.
This does not mean that Israeli Christians do not occasionally encounter intolerance. But in contrast to elsewhere in the Middle East where hatred of Christians is ignored or encouraged, Israel remains committed to its Declaration of Independence pledge to "ensure the complete equality of all its citizens irrespective of religion." It guarantees free access to all Christian holy places, which are under the exclusive aegis of Christian clergy. When Muslims tried to erect a mosque near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Israeli government interceded to preserve the sanctity of the shrine.
Israel abounds with such sites (Capernaum, the Hill of the Beatitudes, the birth place of St. John the Baptist) but the state constitutes only part of the Holy Land. The rest, according to Jewish and Christian tradition, is in Gaza and the West Bank. Christians in those areas suffer the same plight as their co-religionists throughout the region.
Since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, half the Christian community has fled. Christmas decorations and public displays of crucifixes are forbidden. In a December 2010 broadcast, Hamas officials exhorted Muslims to slaughter their Christian neighbors. Rami Ayad, owner of Gaza's only Christian bookstore, was murdered, his store reduced to ash. This is the same Hamas with which the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank recently signed a unity pact.
Little wonder, then, that the West Bank is also hemorrhaging Christians. Once 15% of the population, they now make up less than 2%. Some have attributed the flight to Israeli policies that allegedly deny Christians economic opportunities, stunt demographic growth, and impede access to the holy sites of Jerusalem. In fact, most West Bank Christians live in cities such as Nablus, Jericho and Ramallah, which are under Palestinian Authority control. All those cities have experienced marked economic growth and sharp population increase—among Muslims.
Israel, in spite of its need to safeguard its borders from terrorists, allows holiday access to Jerusalem's churches to Christians from both the West Bank and Gaza. In Jerusalem, the number of Arabs—among them Christians—has tripled since the city's reunification by Israel in 1967.
There must be another reason, then, for the West Bank's Christian exodus. The answer lies in Bethlehem. Under Israeli auspices, the city's Christian population grew by 57%. But under the Palestinian Authority since 1995, those numbers have plummeted. Palestinian gunmen seized Christian homes—compelling Israel to build a protective barrier between them and Jewish neighborhoods—and then occupied the Church of the Nativity, looting it and using it as a latrine. Today, Christians comprise a mere one-fifth of their holy city's population.
The extinction of the Middle East's Christian communities is an injustice of historic magnitude. Yet Israel provides an example of how this trend can not only be prevented but reversed. With the respect and appreciation that they receive in the Jewish state, the Christians of Muslim countries could not only survive but thrive.
Mr. Oren is Israel's ambassador to the United States
This does not mean that Israeli Christians do not occasionally encounter intolerance. But in contrast to elsewhere in the Middle East where hatred of Christians is ignored or encouraged, Israel remains committed to its Declaration of Independence pledge to "ensure the complete equality of all its citizens irrespective of religion." It guarantees free access to all Christian holy places, which are under the exclusive aegis of Christian clergy. When Muslims tried to erect a mosque near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Israeli government interceded to preserve the sanctity of the shrine.
Israel abounds with such sites (Capernaum, the Hill of the Beatitudes, the birth place of St. John the Baptist) but the state constitutes only part of the Holy Land. The rest, according to Jewish and Christian tradition, is in Gaza and the West Bank. Christians in those areas suffer the same plight as their co-religionists throughout the region.
Since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, half the Christian community has fled. Christmas decorations and public displays of crucifixes are forbidden. In a December 2010 broadcast, Hamas officials exhorted Muslims to slaughter their Christian neighbors. Rami Ayad, owner of Gaza's only Christian bookstore, was murdered, his store reduced to ash. This is the same Hamas with which the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank recently signed a unity pact.
Little wonder, then, that the West Bank is also hemorrhaging Christians. Once 15% of the population, they now make up less than 2%. Some have attributed the flight to Israeli policies that allegedly deny Christians economic opportunities, stunt demographic growth, and impede access to the holy sites of Jerusalem. In fact, most West Bank Christians live in cities such as Nablus, Jericho and Ramallah, which are under Palestinian Authority control. All those cities have experienced marked economic growth and sharp population increase—among Muslims.
Israel, in spite of its need to safeguard its borders from terrorists, allows holiday access to Jerusalem's churches to Christians from both the West Bank and Gaza. In Jerusalem, the number of Arabs—among them Christians—has tripled since the city's reunification by Israel in 1967.
There must be another reason, then, for the West Bank's Christian exodus. The answer lies in Bethlehem. Under Israeli auspices, the city's Christian population grew by 57%. But under the Palestinian Authority since 1995, those numbers have plummeted. Palestinian gunmen seized Christian homes—compelling Israel to build a protective barrier between them and Jewish neighborhoods—and then occupied the Church of the Nativity, looting it and using it as a latrine. Today, Christians comprise a mere one-fifth of their holy city's population.
The extinction of the Middle East's Christian communities is an injustice of historic magnitude. Yet Israel provides an example of how this trend can not only be prevented but reversed. With the respect and appreciation that they receive in the Jewish state, the Christians of Muslim countries could not only survive but thrive.
Mr. Oren is Israel's ambassador to the United States