The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) deals with
human-rights violations, for the most part perpetrated under the
responsibility of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Occasionally we
deal with violations committed by Israel. The PHRMG is not
vulnerable to political pressure to ignore human-rights abuses,
proven by our continual focus on the treatment of political
prisoners, the behavior of the [Palestinian] security forces,
collaborators and land dealers, the judicial system, and so on. In
addition to these matters, we see our mandate as including issues
of democratization, the creation of healthy Palestinian
institutions, and broader issues affecting the development of
Palestinian society.
Our internal debate on how to address the issue of Christian
persecution was prompted by three factors. First, a pastor named
David Ortiz, based in the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the West
Bank, approached me with allegations that converts to Christianity
were being persecuted; second, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office
leaked a "secret" report claiming that Christians in the PA were
being systematically persecuted; and third, the PHRMG was contacted
by many journalists and diplomats attempting to determine if
Christians were being persecuted or not. We were disconcerted to be
questioned repeatedly about human-rights violations that we had not
been aware of before, and about which no other Palestinian
human-rights group had any information.
Our enquiries had two directions: first, we had a genuine interest
in locating Christian victims of Muslim - or PA - sponsored
persecution, so that these "unknown" victims could be defended with
the full force of public opinion; second, if the allegations of
Christian persecution were found to be substantially false, we felt
they should be publicly debunked by a human-rights group, since
they had gained currency by piggy-backing on the poor public-rights
record of the PA. Preliminary research revealed that the issue was
being used around the world, but particularly in the United States,
to defame the PA and the Palestinians in general. Further, the
PHRMG has repeatedly been quoted in media reports of persecution,
making it appear as though we had affirmed the veracity of the
allegations.1 For all these reasons, we felt the need to respond
with a definitive evaluation of the allegations ¬which
hopefully will set the record straight.
Merry Christmas: You're under Arrest
In October 1997, a classified Israeli government report was leaked
by the Prime Minister's Office to The Jerusalem Post and the
International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ). According to
the Post, the report claimed that Christians suffer from "brutal
and relentless persecution" under the PA.2 The Post story was used
by news agencies and media outlets around the world.
The most serious of the allegations is that, because of their
faith, Palestinian Christians are being arrested and detained by
Palestinian security services. Five stories follow of Palestinian
Christians referred to in media accounts of persecution.
Cases of Christian Persecution in Palestine3
Editor's note summarizing the cases.
• Muneer, aged 37, from a village near Nablus, converted to
Christianity from Islam six years ago. He was arrested on June 3D,
1997, in the midst of a wave of arrests for land dealing, on
charges of selling land to Jews 15 years ago. As land dealers tend
to be wealthy, these charges may be false: Muneer lives with his
family in a tiny, sparsely furnished two-room house. David Ortiz
says that the land in question may be today owned by Palestinians.
Many believe that his continuous proselytizing for the Christian
faith is the real cause of his arrest.
• Mustafa, aged 25, began Christian Bible study in Ramallah
four years ago and, since then, has introduced his new faith to 12
others in his Muslim village of 3,000. Under Islamic law, the
penalty for conversion from Islam is death. He claimed his
neighbors wanted him to return to Islam, even by force. He was
arrested five times by the PA security authorities, who "tried to
get me to return to Islam [ ... ] claiming the Christians are
working for the CIA or the Israeli Mossad." He was accused of
collaborating and spying and quit his university studies and his
village in fear of his life.
• Khalid, aged 34 from Nablus, converted one and a half years
ago to Christianity, persuading his brothers to convert. He has
been detained four times by the Preventive Security Services (PSS),
suffering in detention from cigarette burns all over his body. He
was charged with the theft of gold and the selling of guns. His
family says he is innocent of the charges and refers to a
"personality clash" with the Chief of Police in Nablus, for unclear
reasons.
• Several years ago, before converting to Christianity, Tarik
assaulted a man in a fight. The dispute was settled three years ago
by a sulha, in which he paid the victim, but he was interrogated by
the PSS when applying for a passport and sentenced in absentia by a
State Security Court. Now in hiding, he does not think he was
arrested for his faith, which is known only to his brothers and
wife.
• Henni, aged 31, has been a Christian for six and a half
years and converted his brothers and others in his village. He
claims there are now some 30 Christians in his village of 5,000,
but only he and one other man are known publicly as Christians. He
has been harassed by the PA and made to speak with a sheikh about
returning to Islam. Refusing to repudiate his new faith, he was
jailed briefly for dishonoring a religious leader. He has also
suffered from harassment by his neighbors, his family shop was
burned, nobody will do business with him or take him in a taxi. A
driver ran into his seven-year-old daughter and his life was
threatened, but the police refused to investigate his case.
Preliminary Conclusions
It is hard to know whether there are more incidents in which
Christians have been harassed by neighbors or by the PA. The five
stories above, once contextualized, are less compelling evidence
for persecution than they may seem at first. The detention of
individuals, Christians or Muslims, without trial or even without
charges is a violation of human rights and should be condemned. The
same goes for torture. But such detentions need to be viewed in the
proper context. Generally speaking, there are four categories of
prisoners in Palestinian jails: suspected collaborators, suspected
Muslim militants, suspects in non-political crimes, and finally
individuals who have been arrested for a reason unknown to anyone
except their arrester. Because there is little rule of law in the
autonomous areas, the individuals in the last category are often
arrested due to a personal disagreement with a member of the
security forces or a PA official.
It is within this context that one should consider the cases
described above. Muneer was arrested for land dealing in the middle
of a wave of arrests for that crime. The charges against him may be
false, but this does not mean that the real reason for his arrest
was his Christianity. His father was arrested before him for the
same crime, although he is not a Christian. The PHRMG has files on
dozens of individuals arrested on charges of land dealing or
collaboration, most of whom are held, like Muneer, illegally
without trial. Many of these undoubtedly are innocent, and the true
reason for their detention is unknown. Many are also tortured and
killed, including three known dead and one disappeared since June
1997. The fact that, along with these dozens, there is one
evangelical Christian is not convincing evidence for a phenomenon
of Christian persecution.
Mustafa was also accused of collaboration - the police said he
worked with an Israeli spy. This charge, although apparently false,
can be understood in more ways than one. Mustafa's pastor is from
the nearby settlement of Ariel and Mustafa regularly visits the
settlement for Christian services and Bible study. In Palestinian
villages, such visits are rare and would naturally attract the
suspicion of the security services.
Khalid was arrested on charges of theft and gun selling and Tarik
doubts that he was arrested because of his faith. Henni does appear
to have been harassed due to his faith, but this harassment seems
to stem from his community's hostility to proselytizing rather than
a PA directive. With the exception of the five cases mentioned
above, we were not successful in locating a case in which a
Christian suffered from a human-rights violation caused by the PA
as a consequence of the victim's religion. This does not mean that
such cases don't exist; but it does contribute to our conclusion
that individual cases notwithstanding, the PA does not have a
policy of harming Christianity or Christian converts from
Islam.
Harassment of Christian converts from Islam should stop [but] the
human¬rights violation is occurring on a local level and not
as a consequence of PA policies against Christians. The nature of
the violations indicates that it is the entire community that is
hostile to the converts, similar to cases of suspected
collaborators and land dealers, some of whom suffer hostility and
estrangement from the community, in addition to human-rights
violations perpetrated by the PA.4,5 We call upon the security
forces to ensure that human rights are upheld according to the law,
even if communal sentiments run against such protection.
Commentary, Analysis, Opinion - Has the Banner of Human Rights Been
Abused As Part of a Political Struggle?
Allegations of Christian persecution in Palestine have wider
implications. The cases described above fit 'into a larger story of
American politics, Christian Zionist concerns, and the manipulation
of the media. The history of using reports of alleged human-rights
violations and atrocities as fuel for propaganda is a long
one.
Bullets in Beit Sahour
According to press reports by the International Christian Embassy
in Jerusalem and by The Jerusalem Post,6 Christian harassment takes
place within a general climate of hostility to Christians. To
support this claim, they cite an incident which took place last
summer in the West Bank village of Beit Sahour. Israel Army Radio
reported on August 15, 1997, that seven Christians had been wounded
in a clash with Palestine police there after 200 angry Christian
villagers had stormed a police station.
Issa Fayez Qumsieh, 20, a resident of Beit Sahour, told the PHRMG
that the incident began when "around four in the afternoon I
received a phone call from my cousin, Nasser Issa Qumsieh (30) who
works for Force 17 [one of the security forces]. He told me that he
saw the police beating up kids from the village and, when he tried
to interfere, the police beat him up." Issa explained that his
cousin, who was not in uniform at the time, intervened after he
heard one of the policemen say he would "screw Beit Sahour girls
because they dress so provocatively."
Issa Qumsieh said he went with his cousin to the police station in
Beit Sahour, armed with batons and iron rods. "We reached the
station, about 50 of us, with others who heard that my cousin had
been beaten up because he was a Christian. We threw stones at the
station and broke inside. The police stood at the opening and fired
in the air. They grabbed me as the organizer, hit me with batons
and held me for seven hours at the station. Then I was released. I
have no idea why the police were beating up the kids. They had been
in the center of town throwing stones at each other and there was a
rumor that the police came to disperse them but were beating up
only Christian and not Muslim kids. However, I cannot verify this
claim."
Yasser Arafat appointed a committee to investigate the incident,
which went unreported in the Palestinian media. According to The
Jerusalem Post, the Israel government report explained that "the PA
is trying to cover up [the incident] and has threatened anyone who
dares to publicize the story."7
Some media reports have also claimed that monasteries have had
their phone lines cut, convents have been burglarized, Christian
cemeteries vandalized, and that "after taking control of Bethlehem
in December 1995 [...] the Church of the Nativity and other sites
of central importance to Christianity came under Palestinian
Authority control, giving Yasser Arafat leverage over the heads of
the Christian communities."8
Christian Persecution: Reality or Hype?
Before any conclusion that the stories above constitute compelling
evidence for widespread persecution of Christians by the PA, one
requires more in-depth understanding of the Palestinian Christian
population. First, the stories with which this report begins of
harassment or arrest by the PA, come only from converts to
evangelical Christianity from Islam. The evangelical community in
Palestine numbers between 60 and 100, all of whom are converts,
mostly from Islam. One must distinguish between this small group
and the overwhelming non-evangelical majority of Palestinian
Christians, who constitute approximately 2.2 percent of the
Palestinian population.9 The harassment of Christians, therefore,
appears to be limited to specific parts of the Palestinian
Christian community; harassment is not widespread and is not
targeted toward the general Palestinian Christian population.
Moreover, the claims of an anti-Christian atmosphere in Palestine
are largely unsubstantiated. The example of the incident in Beit
Sahour demonstrates how inaccurate information and rumors can lead
to misinterpretation. The insult which began the incident was
couched in religious terms, but, today, in Palestine, such a
comment is not necessarily anti-Christian: violent personal
disputes arise occasionally between secular and religious Muslims,
as well as between Muslims and Christians, over proper dress for
women, eating during Ramadan, and so on. In any case, a comment
made by a policeman, followed immediately by a public rebuke from
another member of the security forces, is not evidence of
widespread Christian persecution.
Similarly, reports of monasteries having phone lines cut, convents
burglarized and cemeteries vandalized are unconfirmed. The PHRMG
has been unable to uncover any specific evidence to verify these
reports. The Palestine Report noted on October 31, 1997, that the
Bethlehem Police "have never received complaints of vandalism or
burglaries from any of the area churches, except for one burglary
at a convent in Bethany." Dr. Mitri Raheb, pastor of the Lutheran
Church in Bethlehem, said that several Christian cemeteries had
been vandalized, "some ... by Israeli settlers and some ... by
Muslim and Christian youth who, as it later turned out, were on
drugS."10
As for allegations that Arafat has exercised leverage on Christian
leaders, it is important to place such claims in proper context.
After the end of the occupation, a new political reality began, of
which Christian leaders became a part. Within this new reality,
perhaps Christian leaders did indeed feel pressured to adjust their
rhetoric to be supportive of Arafat - but in this way, they are no
different than any other group in Palestine. No specific evidence
of arm-twisting by the PA against Christian leaders has been
presented.
In an important way, the lot of Christians has improved under the
PA because, for the first time, institutions have been set up to
ensure that their voice is heard. Ecumenical forums, interfaith
dialogues, and the PA Ministry for Religious Affairs all serve as
places for Christian grievances to be aired. The Latin Patriarchate
noted that "the Palestinian Authority, chaired by Arafat, is easily
accessible to us, religious leaders, through many channels. It is
useless to mention that many Christians are highly ranked within
the Palestinian Authority structure."
Furthermore, Christians' integral role in the Palestinian
nationalist movement has ensured them a respected place in
Palestinian political culture. Bernard Sabella, a professor of
sociology at Bethlehem University and well-known commentator on
Palestinian Christian affairs, explains: "The Intifada, as a
popular uprising, saw Christians and Muslims engaged in an effort
to end the occupation and achieve independence. The Beit Sahour Tax
Revolt of 1989 was but one example of Palestinian Christian
grass-roots participation in challenging occupation. The records of
young Christians imprisoned and martyred are other indications of
the attachment to, and identity with, Palestine and its
cause."ll
Of course, participation in nationalist politics does not guarantee
good treatment after independence is achieved. But [there is] a
reality in which Christians are seen as active participants in the
Palestinian body politic by both their Muslim neighbors and
themselves.
Persecution of Evangelicals: Politics or Faith?
If indeed there is some harassment, organized or not, by
Palestinians of evangelical Christians, its motivation may well be
political rather than religious. Although a desire to protect
Muslims from Christian proselytizing partly underlies the
resurrection of a British Mandate-era missionary law (Israel also
bans missionary activity, and a law which outlaws possession of
missionary materials is working its way through the Knesset), the
politics inherent in this specific brand of evangelical
Christianity makes it an obvious target for PA scrutiny.
Central to the ideology of the evangelical Christianity preached by
missionaries of Israel and Palestine - a theology which interprets
the Bible literally - is Zionism. The Land of Israel, that is the
whole of the Land of Israel, has been given to the Jews by God. The
resettlement of this land by Jews and the establishment of a Jewish
sovereignty over it are interpreted as a sign of Christ's second
coming. An ICEJ brochure entitled Christian Zionism explains: "The
Scriptures tell us about the regathering of Israel back to her own
land, which God will fulfill [sic] for His own name's sake ...
Judea and Samaria are essential parts of the Land promised to
Israel and linked with the history of Israel...These facts should
convince us that the existence of Israel and the right of the
Jewish People to return home and live in peace within secure
borders is worthy of our support…"
A peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians which would
result in the creation of a Palestinian state in the biblical Land
of Israel would thus erect a political roadblock to the
theologically inspired goals of many evangelicals. The ICEJ
brochure continues: "The millennia-long Jewish bond to places like
Hebron, Beit-El and Elon Moreh is far closer, both emotionally and
rationally, than it is to Tel Aviv. They are places in the very
heart of the Land of Israel, the cradle of Jewish civilization;
they are the towns, villages, mountains and valleys which give the
Bible its contemporaneity." In our conversations with Palestinian
evangelical converts, the PHRMG discovered that most have accepted
the political implications of this theology. In general they
express support for Israeli control of the West Bank and are highly
critical of Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Missionaries who
convert Palestinians from Islam to evangelical Christianity,
therefore, also convert them to a religious Zionism embodied by the
right-wing of Israeli politics. It is no wonder that Palestinians
find evangelical missionary activity threatening (although not
necessarily because of its potential to become a widespread
phenomenon).
The PA is aware of the political implications of evangelical
Christianity and of [the work] of "the International Christian
Embassy, made up mainly of evangelists, based in West Jerusalem,
which at their latest event on Succot welcomed Netanyahu ...
,"
All this is not to make excuses for the PA; indeed, some
evangelical Christians have had their human rights violated. They
have been arrested, sometimes without charge, sometimes on charges
which make no sense, and they have been illegally detained without
trial, or tried in absentia. This we should, and do, condemn. But
thousands of other Palestinians have experienced the same since the
arrival of the PA in 1994. The question at hand - the question
raised by the Israeli government, the ICEJ and media reports - is
whether there is sufficient evidence to believe that Palestinian
Christians are arrested because of their faith. Given the context
of the Palestinian legal system - in which the lack of rule of law
enables individuals of all faiths to be targeted and persecuted by
other individuals without recourse - there is no reason to believe
that Christians are being specially targeted.
Is the PA guilty of violating human rights? Certainly, and this
time some of its victims happen to be evangelical Christians. But
such facts are unfortunately old news. Is the PA guilty of
systematically persecuting Christians because they are Christians,
as the Israeli government, the ICEJ and media would have us
believe? All signs point to the answer being no.
Media Distortions
The Sunday Telegraph of London reported on December 21, 1997, that
"Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority is waging a campaign of
intimidation and harassment" against Christian converts. Reports
that "the dwindling Christian minority in the Palestinian Authority
areas are being persecuted"12 persist despite the condemnation of
every major Christian group in Palestine. The Latin Patriarchate of
Jerusalem, for example, denounced the "allegations made by the
Israeli media and others" as "totally untrue" and "aiming to
provoke hostility and breaches within the Palestinian people." It
continued, "We deny and reject any allegation that we, Christians,
are being subject to persecution at the hands of Muslim nationals."
Prominent Christians from the Bethlehem area spoke against "cheap
and malicious propaganda." Such responses, which provide a balance
to claims by the ICEJ, typically do not appear in media reports. It
is fair to question such statements and to refrain from taking them
at face value. But, in our judgment, they are an accurate
reflection of Christian reality in Palestine.
Christian Emigration: Running Scared?
Typical of misinformed media coverage has been its understanding of
Christian emigration. Christians emigrate from Palestinian
autonomous areas at a greater rate than Muslims. This does not
imply that Christians must be fleeing from persecution.
Unfortunately, many observers have made precisely this fallacious
connection. For example, U.S. Representative J. C. Watts (Rep. OK)
wrote that "hopeless" Christian emigrants are "driven by the steady
persecution of the PA and the realization that they will face worse
treatment under a possible Palestinian state."13
The higher emigration rate of Christians can be explained by social
factors, and should not be construed as a response to PA
oppression. As Bernard Sabella explains, a higher rate of
Christians than Muslims live in cities and are in the middle class,
making them relatively more mobile; furthermore, Christians tend to
be better educated, thanks to the opportunities afforded them by
Christian schools and colleges. These factors combine to make the
Palestinian Christians smugly fit the definition of a likely
emigrant community: "A community with a high educational
achievement and a relatively good standard of living, but with no
real prospects for economic security or advancement, will most
probably become a migrant community."14
Most importantly, Christians can expect to find social and
religious communities more easily than Muslims in the mostly
Christian West. Mitri Raheb told the Palestine Report, "What makes
it easier for Christians to emigrate is the pulling factor, with
many of them already having relatives who live abroad."15 The
deteriorating economic situation in the territories further makes
emigration an attractive option for many Christians. Raheb
continued, "This is why I see a parallel between Muslim
fundamentalism and Christian emigration. When a Muslim loses hope,
he resorts to fundamentalism, thus emigrating psychologically. When
a Christian loses hope, he emigrates geographically."
Bethlehem was 80 percent Christian in 1948 and is 80 percent Muslim
today. This change is not the result of a recent effort to
Islamicize Bethlehem. Rather, the demographic balance shifted
significantly as a result of the Arab-¬Israeli war of 1948.
West Bank cities and refugee camps absorbed hundreds of thousands
of refugees from the new Jewish state, the overwhelming majority of
whom were Muslim. Obviously, this influx, combined with higher
Muslim birth rates, is responsible for changing the population
balance of West Bank cities. Yet, in an article which calls Arafat
an "oppressor," the Washington Times cries indignantly: "Where are
the eighty thousand Christians of Bethlehem?"16 It is a mystery how
the Times derived the figure 80,000. Such misrepresentation is
typical of reports on the subject.
The American Connection
One year ago, America's human-rights establishment was focused on a
variety of human-rights causes. But beginning in the summer of
1997, the issue of religious persecution, and particularly
Christian persecution, came to the forefront, thanks to lobbying
efforts by the politically influential Christian Right. Now a bill
called the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act, sponsored by
Senator Arlen Spector (Rep., PA) and Representative Frank Wolf
(Rep., VA), is working its way through the U.S. Congress. The bill
would establish an office to track religious persecution and place
penalties, including an end to non-humanitarian aid and loans, on
countries which systematically persecute any religious group.
According to The New York Times, the bill has divided the
Republican Party: While Christian groups support the bill, big
business has opposed it, in part for the implications it would have
for America's relations with China, notorious for its persecuting
Christians (as well as Muslims, Buddhists, Tibetans and
intellectuals).
Advocates of the bill also focus on the Islamic world as
egregiously persecuting Christians (in Sudan, Egypt, etc.).
Prominent evangelical minister and founder of the Christian
Coalition, Pat Robertson, assailed Islam on his television show,
telling his viewers that "to see Americans becoming followers of
'Islam', is nothing short of insanity" because Islam is "the
religion of the slavers .... "17
It was in this context that allegations surfaced of Christian
persecution in Palestine, led by the ICEJ, an organization with
close ties to the Christian Coalition and other American
evangelical groups. Roberston continued, "We must demand the State
Department do something in relation to the Sudan, in relation to
the Palestinian Authority, in relation to Iran, in relation to
Saudi Arabia and these other countries that are persecuting
Christians ... We can't be silent; look what happened in the
Holocaust. A whole race was close to extinction because we were
silent. If it's them now, it'll be us next."18
Only utter ignorance of Middle Eastern affairs could lead one to
equate the situation of Christians in the PA with their situation
in the Sudan, let alone with the Holocaust. Unfortunately, most of
Robertson's viewers are not sufficiently informed to know this.
Rhetoric like Robertson's, and publicity work by the ICEJ, have
successfully influenced American public discourse. The issue has
become a rallying point for the Christian Right. Representative
J.C. Watts wrote of "a precipitous rise in violent attacks against
Christians living under Arafat's authoritative government" since
the beginning of the peace process. He asserts that "this once
vibrant minority group routinely has suffered violent attacks,
summary arrests, and the destruction of its holy places throughout
the autonomous zones."19
Watts concludes, "Despite the disbursement of billions of dollars
in aid to the Palestinian Authority from the West, including some
$307 million from the United States, to promote democracy and
respect for human rights in the Palestinian autonomous areas,
religious persecution remains a fact of life for local Christians."
The Wolf-Spector bill in Congress is the perfect rejoinder for
Watts and others who believe his allegations: cut aid to punish the
PA for religious persecution. Except that there is no systematic
religious persecution in Palestine. Human-rights abuses abound; but
Christians, in general, remain unmolested.
Conclusion
After investigating allegations of persecution of Christians in
Palestine, the PHRMG has concluded that reports of widespread
persecution are without foundation. Evangelical converts from Islam
have faced harassment, but there is no evidence that this
harassment is organized from above, or that it differs from other
cases in which people (land dealers, collaborators) have suffered
from the hostility of their local community. Furthermore, their
problems may well stem from the political beliefs which accompany
their theology rather than their faith itself. The hysteria which
has been whipped up over the issue actually does a disservice to
the non-evangelical majority of Palestinian Christians by casting
doubt on their membership within the broader Palestinian
community.
Endnotes
1. The most recent (and most consistent) offender was the Middle
East Digest, published by the International Christian Embassy of
Jerusalem (ICE]). In their January 1998 issue, they quote out of
context our "Deaths in Custody" report, which had nothing to do
with Christian persecution, to make it appear as though we support
the claims of persecution of Christians. In the middle of an
article entitled "Christians under Threat," surrounded by
discussion of Christian persecution, I am quoted as saying that the
PA "often uses 'blackmail' against aggrieved families." Generally,
these statements are true; but they have nothing whatsoever to do
with allegations of Christian persecution.
2. The Jerusalem Post, October 24, 1997.
3. All information in this section was obtained in interviews on
December 4, 1997.
4. See the article by Alia Sislik condemning the phenomenon, in
Monitor no. 4.
5. Bassem Eid, who researched a B'Tselem report on the murder of
suspected collaborators during the Intifada, reports that there was
no case in which Christians were targeted by Intifada activists. At
least 800 suspected collaborators and criminals were killed at this
time.
6. The Jerusalem Post, October 24, 1997, and Middle East Digest,
August 1997. The latter is published by the ICEJ.
7. The Jerusalem Post, October 24, 1997.
8. Backgrounder of the Israel government report, obtained from the
ICEJ.
9. Christian Voices from the Holy Land, A. Aghazarian, B. Sabella,
A. Safieh, The Palestinian General Delegation to the UK, December
1997, p.5.
10. Palestine Report, October 31, 1997.
11. Bernard Sabella, "Socia-Economic Characteristics and the
Challenges to Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land" in
Christians in the Holy Land (eds., Michael Prior and William
Taylor), London: World of Islam Festival Trust, 1994.
12. The Jerusalem Post, October 24, 1997.
13. Washington Times, December 4, 1997.
14. Sabella, op. cit., quoting Stavro Danilov, "Dilemmas of
Jerusalem's Christians" in Middle East Review, Vol XIII, no. 3-4,
1981.
15. Palestine Report, October 31, 1997.
16. Washington Times, October 17, 1997.
17. Transcript of the television show the "700 Club," October
27,1997, obtained from People for the American Way.
18. Ibid.
19. Washington Times, December 4, 1997.
The Palestinian Authority's Treatment of Christians in the
Autonomous Areas - Prepared by the Israeli Prime Minister's
Office.
The Takeover of Bethlehem
On taking control over Bethlehem in December 1995, the Palestinian
Authority (PA) changed the rules for Christians.
The Church of the Nativity and other sites of central importance to
Christians came under PA control, giving Yasser Arafat leverage
over the heads of the Christian communities. Since then, the local
Christian leadership has toed the line of the PA.
The Latin patriarch, Greek archbishop and Lutheran bishop are all
Palestinian Arabs. They have become effective propaganda
mouthpieces throughout the Christian world. An example of Arafat's
attitude toward the Christians was his decision to unilaterally
turn the Greek Orthodox monastery near the Church of the Nativity
in Bethlehem into his domicile during his periodic visits to the
city. This was done without prior consent of the church.
Treatment of Palestinians by the Palestinian
Authority
On the social and religious level, the Christians remaining in the
Palestinian Authority-controlled areas are subjected to relentless
persecution. Christian cemeteries have been destroyed, monasteries
have had their telephone lines cut, and there have been break-ins
into convents. Nuns are afraid to report such incidents.
In August 1997, Palestinian policemen in Beit Sahour opened fire on
a crowd of Christian Arabs, wounding six. The Palestinian Authority
is attempting to cover up the incident and warned against
publicizing the story. The local commander of the Palestinian
Police instructed journalists not to report on the incident.
Palestinian security forces have targeted and intimidated Christian
leaders and Palestinian converts to Christianity. Recent incidents
of persecution include the following:
• In late June 1997, a Palestinian convert to Christianity in
the northern West Bank was arrested by agents of the PA's
Preventive Security Service. He had been regularly attending church
and prayer meetings and was distributing Bibles. The PA ordered his
arrest. He is still being held in a Palestinian prison and has been
subjected to physical torture and interrogations.
• The pastor of a church in Ramallah was recently warned by
the Palestinian Authority security agents that they were monitoring
his evangelical activities in the area and wanted him to come in
for questioning for spreading Christianity.
• A Palestinian convert to Christianity living in a village
near Nablus was recently arrested by the Palestinian Police. A
Muslim preacher was brought in by the police, and he attempted to
convince the convert to return to Islam. When the convert refused,
he was brought before a Palestinian court and sentenced to prison
for insulting the religious leader. He is currently held in a
prison cell along with more than thirty people, most serving life
sentences for murder.
• A Palestinian convert to Christianity in Ramallah was
recently visited by Palestinian policemen at his home and warned
that, if he continued to preach Christianity; he would be arrested
and charged with being an Israeli spy.
As a result of unceasing persecution, Christians are forced to
behave like any oppressed minority which aims to survive.
Christians in PA-controlled areas have taken to praying in secret.
The wisdom of survival compels them to assess the "balance of
fear," according to which they have nothing to fear from Israel,
but face an existential threat from the PA and their Muslim
neighbors. They act accordingly: They seek to "find favor" through
unending praise and adulation for the Muslim ruler, together with
public denunciations of the "Zionist enemy."
Emigration of Christians from Palestinian Authority
Territory
In the last census conducted by the British Mandatory authorities
in 1947, there were 28,000 Christians in Jerusalem. The census
conducted in Israel in 1967 (after the Six-Day War) showed just
11,000 Christians remaining in the city. This means that some
17,000 Christians (or 61 percent) left during the days of King
Hussein's rule over Jerusalem. Their place was filled by Muslim
Arabs from Hebron.
During the British Mandate period, Bethlehem had a Christian
majority of 80 percent. Today, under Palestinian rule, it has a
Muslim majority of 80 percent. Few Christians remain in the
Palestinian-controlled parts of the West Bank. Those who can,
emigrate, and there will soon be virtually no Christians in the
Palestinian Authority-controlled areas. The PA is trying to conceal
the fact of massive Christian emigration from areas under its
control.