The
Palestinian Christian Is
An Endangered Species
By Prof Abe W Ata
02 May, 2007
Countercurrents.org
When
the modern state of Israel was established there were about 400,000
of us. Two years ago the number was down to 80,000. Now it’s down
to 60,000. At that rate, in a few years there will be none of us left.
When this happens non-Christian groups will move into our churches and
claim them forever.
Palestinian Christians within
Israel fare little better. On the face of it, their number has grown
by 20,000 since 1991. But this is misleading, for the census classification
“Christian” includes some 20,000 recent non-Arab migrants
from the former Soviet Union.
So why are Palestinian Christians
abandoning their homeland?
We have lost hope, that’s
why. We are treated as non-people. Few outside the Middle East even
know we exist, and those who do, conveniently forget.
I refer, of course, to the
American Religious Right. They see modern Israel as a harbinger of the
Second Coming, at which time Christians will go to paradise, and all
others (presumably including Jews) to hell. To this end they lend military
and moral support to Israel.
Even by the double-dealing
standards of international diplomacy this is a breathtakingly cynical
bargain. It is hard to know who is using whom more: the Christian Right
for offering secular power in the expectation that the Jewish state
will be destroyed by a greater spiritual one; or the Israeli Right for
accepting their offer. What we do know is that both sides are abusing
the Palestinians. Apparently we don’t enter into anyone’s
calculations.
The views of the Israeli
Right are well known: they want us gone.
Less well known are the views
of the American Religious Right. Strangely, they find the liberation
of Iraqis from a vile dictator just, but do not find it unjust for us
to be under military occupation for 38 long years.
Said Senator James Inhofe
(Rep.,Oklahoma): “God Appeared to Abraham and said: ‘I am
giving you this land’, the West Bank. This is not a political
battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the word of God is
true.”
Inhofe must have got it wrong.
Promises are being made to earthly Jerusalem that God did not make.
The Holy Land was promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants,
as stated in the Bible. These are the Palestinian Muslims, Christians
and Jews, who have been living in the land for thousands of years. The
Bible never mentioned that God promised it solely to Jews. Anyone can
be a Jew, but not anyone can be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
and their descendants. James Inhofe and followers are unable to tell
the difference between Jew, Israelite and Israel.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey (Rep.,Texas) was even more forthright:
“I'm content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank …
I happen to believe that the Palestinians should leave.”
There is a phrase for this. Ethnic cleansing.
Silencing us, from seeking
your support and enlightening you about our suffering, goes counter
to what Jesus has mandated us to do. We all know that Muslims and Jews
get ceaseless support (political, spiritual and financial) from Saudi
Arabia and America respectively, while Palestinian Christians get nothing
from Australian and other Western “Christian” governments.
(The Pope has been an exception.)
Prior to the 1967 war, the
Christian youth at the Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist and other churches
in Bethlehem used to pray and rejoice and have a good chat with hundreds
of American Christian pilgrims. In particular Texas and California were
two places from where many came to visit the Holy Land. Today only fading
memories prevail. Bethlehem has been vacated by Christian families.
The remaining Christians are paying the price by experiencing curfews
which last for weeks. They remain sandwiched between Muslims and Jews
without drawing the slightest concern from the many so-called Western
Christians.
So why do American Christians
stand by while their leaders advocate the expulsion of fellow Christians?
Could it be that they do not know that the Holy Land has been a home
to Christians since, well … since Christ?
Do not think I am asking
for special treatment for Christians. Ethnic cleansing is evil whoever
does it and to whomever it is done. Palestinian Christians - Anglican,
Maronite Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Armenians, Baptists, Copts
and Assyrians - have been rubbing shoulders with each other and with
other religions - Muslims, Jews, Druze and (most recently) Baha’is
- for centuries. And we want to do so for centuries more. But we can’t
if we are driven out by despair.
We are equally frightened by those who commit suicide bombings. None
of us Christians have condoned it or even contemplated the idea. Our
commitment to Jesus’ teachings will never shake our resolve in
this matter.
American journalist Anders
Strindberg makes a clearer conclusion. He says Palestinians are equated
with Islamists, Islamists with terrorists. And presumably because all
organised Christian activity among Palestinians is non-political and
non-violent, the community hardly ever hits western headlines. Suicide
bombers sell more copy than people who congregate for Bible study.
What we seek is support: material, moral, political and spiritual. As
Palestinians we grieve for what we have lost, and few people have lost
more than us (the Ashkenazi Jews are one). But grief can be assuaged
by the fellowship of friends.
Prof Abe W Ata was a temporary delegate to the UN in
1970 and has lived and worked in the Middle East, America and Australia.
Dr Ata is a 9th generation Christian Palestinian academic born in Bethlehem,
and currently works at the Australian Catholic University. [email protected]
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