The Northampton Seminar
When my son and I were hiking through Galilee in October 2009, a burly Palestinian Christian man pulled me aside and whispered.
“Do you know who gives us Christians our problems? Do you think it is the Israeli government? Don’t be a fool.
“It is our Muslim cousins. It is because of them that so many of us are leaving. They attack us even in our own Palestinian villages here in Galilee.”
He did not mean only physical attacks. More often the attacks took the form of demanding and threatening. Such as when he walked with his wife, her head uncovered, and Muslim men jeered her for not wearing a scarf.
“As a man I am angry but cannot respond. If I do, they might hurt my family.”
He concluded sadly, “There will not be any of us left a hundred years from now.”
Today there is a report from the Gatestone Institute on Christians leaving the Holy Land.
“The sad truth is that in the Palestinian territories, Christians are forced to live like dhimmis — second-class citizens who survive largely by the protection-money they are required to pay to buy their daily safety. These barely-tolerated citizens exist only at the whim and pleasure of the ruling Muslim majority. Muslim Arab discrimination against non-Muslims includes economic and socially prejudicial behavior that makes it difficult or impossible for Christian Arabs to run a profitable business or for their families to be fully integrated into society.”
It goes on to report on a Palestinian Christian leader who blames the Israeli government. This is very common. Christian leaders know that if they do not blame Jews in the world media, they will be attacked by Muslims and might lose their positions. But such blame is almost always misplaced.
Read here for more on the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
By the way, the number of Christians in Israel proper is increasing, and has been on the rise ever since 1948. It is only in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas that Christian numbers are going down.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In