On Line opinion, Australia
March 24 2006

The Palestinian Christian – persecuted, betrayed

By Abe Ata – posted Friday, 24 March 2006

The Palestinian Christian is an endangered species.

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.

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
Senior Fellow Institute for the Advancement of Research, and lectures
in Psychology at the Australian Catholic University (Melbourne). Dr
Ata is a 9th generation Christian Palestinian academic born in
Bethlehem.
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