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Today the estimates vary some, but about 3,500 Christians are left in Gaza and about a total of in all of Palestine of 200,000 - Islamist khafir persecutors of Christians are as much to blame now as the Israeli occupiers of Palestine are now and have been in the past.
A large part of the blame must be laid at the feet of heretics such as Christian Zionists and Ecumenists. Both are guilty of apostate syncretism with the enemies of the Gospel.
This does not excuse Islamists who operate under no applicable sharia recognized by any competent Islamic authority and are actually a mix of Mista'arvim and Sayanim and Western Intelligence Agency terrorist saboteurs and Muslims in name only who violate a proper Quranic understanding of the peace that Christians and Muslims have lived in during the many centuries in Palestine.
With coming of the Antichrist, ad Dajjal, closer every day, it is shameful that anyone would take the side of Satan, Iblis, and persecute the followers of Jesus in the very land where Our Lord Jesus Christ was born, lived and taught and was crucified and died and rose again in the flesh and ascended to heaven and will return to with all of His elect angels. He said: Luke 18:7 And will not God revenge his elect who cry to him day and night: and will he have patience in their regard? 8 I say to you, that he will quickly revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth? Anyone persecuting these harmless little ones of the Lord is emphatically NOT of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ nor in the True God.
Palestinian Christians in Struggle.pdf - 2004
Excerpt:
Problems of Palestinian
Christians as a Result of
the Political Situation
This report, compiled by the Joint
Advocacy Initiative of the East Jerusalem
YMCA and the YWCA of Palestine,
contains various case studies of Christian
lives in the Bethlehem area, documenting
the problems they face as a result of the
Israeli occupation. These case studies are
the result of interviews conducted with
Palestinian Christians, including
individuals, religious leaders and
members of local Church related
organizations. The interviews were held
over a two-month period in the summer
of 2004, and were mostly conducted
through the medium of English. The
report also contains statistical data from
several Church related and independent
Non Governmental Organizations and
the Bethlehem municipality.
This work also attempts to touch upon
the historical and current situation of
Palestinian Christians as members of
Palestinian society. The results of this
research will hopefully provide those
living outside of Palestine with a greater
understanding of the human side of the
struggles that all Palestinians face as seen
through the life experiences of some
Palestinian Christians.
Christians in the Holy Land are living
reminders of the very foundation of the
religion. They have had a continuous
presence in the area since the time of
Christ. More recently, at the time of the
creation of the state of Israel in 1948,
there were approximately 400,000
Palestinian Christians living in Palestine.
About 50% of Palestinian Christians
were forced from their homes by the
Israeli military during the 1948 war. As a
result of this forced removal and high
emigration, there are currently fewer than
60,000 Christians living in Palestine
(National Catholic reporter).
Christians are and have been emigrating
at a much higher rate than their Muslim
neighbors which has led to a significant
decrease in the percentage of Christians
in the Palestinian population from 10%
in 1948 to about 2% presently.
Christians in Palestine are mainly
centered around the Jerusalem and the
Bethlehem areas, including the
neighboring towns of Beit Jala and Beit
Sahour. This report focuses on the
Christians of the Bethlehem area. They
belong to a wide variety of
denominations including Greek
Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Syrian
Catholics, and Protestants.
For the purpose of clarity, I have
gathered the various stories into
categories that explain the main
problems and pressures facing Palestinian
Christians. Many interviewees have
refused to be named for fear of reprisal.
Do Gaza’s Christians Feel Safe? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
Do Gaza’s Christians Feel Safe? | |
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A Greek Orthodox priest attends Christmas services at the Saint Porfirios church in Gaza City January 7, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)
The smell of fresh white paint lingers in the air, and the
glimmer of the small gate catches the eye. The
This is what typically happens when talk concerns Christians
in the Gaza
Strip. It is a delicate subject that no one wishes to address, especially
after incidents like the one on April 13, when at dawn a small group of youths
burned tires in front of the school’s gate, smashed cameras and broke windows.
Ayman al-Batniji, spokesman for the Gaza Police, explained
to Al-Monitor that the episode involved soccer. The school’s guard
had prohibited adolescent boys from the neighborhood from playing soccer in the
schoolyard and reported them to the police. Afterward, the youths took their
revenge. Batniji stressed that the boys' actions were not, by any means, a
sectarian attack.
Civic activist Mustafa Ibrahim, however, believes that the
police department should have dealt with the issue without delay, particularly
given that the attack coincided with new educational laws that ban
mixed-gender schools. The laws are aimed at Islamizing the Gaza Strip,
which has led some to believe that the attack on the school was the result of
incitement, most likely by extremist groups.
Ibrahim observed that the political split between Fatah and Hamas had
been followed by sectarian attacks. Subsequently, the fear by Christians’ for
their lives intensified, pushing many of them to emigrate, despite attempts by
Hamas to alleviate their anxiety. Some extremist groups still consider
Christians to be infidels, so when a conflict occurs between these groups and
the government, Christians end up paying the price.
There are approximately 1,500 Christians in the Gaza Strip,
the majority of whom are Orthodox. In the mid-1970s, however, they numbered
some 5,000. A worker in one of
Speaking to Al-Monitor, civic activist Elias
al-Jalda said that Muslims and Christians alike are emigrating, but the trend
is more noticeable among the Christians due to their smaller numbers. Jalda
thinks people are emigrating for a number of reasons, including the wars waged
by
According to reports issued by human rights organizations in
the Gaza Strip, Rami Ayad, a Christian, was killed in October 2007 by
extremists, and in 2008, the library of a Christian organization for youth was
blown up and the guard kidnapped. The string of such incidents continued. In
May 2008, the gate of the
In July 2012, the Orthodox Church issued a statement
accusing the Islamic Group of kidnapping five Christians and forcing them to
convert to Islam.
Later that year, in December, 45-year-old Suhail Fouad Ayad, his wife and his
16-year-old son were shot following a financial dispute.
Ramez al-Amash had been one of the Christians subjected to
conversion. In further exploring this and other incidents, Al-Monitor met
with Ramez’s father, Hanna al-Amash, in his small shop in the Old City of Gaza.
Amash was visibly upset as he recalled the episode involving his only child.
“My son is a Christian. He is currently studying accounting in
Nabil Ayad, the 51-year-old brother of Suhail, denied that
their shooting was carried out for financial or sectarian reasons. He stressed
that a carpenter who had been working in his brother’s home had shot the family
in order to rob them.
In a phone interview with Al-Monitor, Ayad
demanded that the law be allowed to run its course and that the perpetrator,
who he said was mentally disturbed, be punished. Ayad revealed that he had
received text messages threatening revenge if he did not drop the charges and
that his brother had recently recovered from the bullets that struck his liver
and lung.
An official in one of
He continued, “The people are not safe, and how can they be,
when you have a minority facing extremist ideas? We, as Christians, are
concerned about everything, especially the future. There are some with twisted
minds who believe that we are infidels. Even if some of these incidents are
spontaneous and driven by misunderstandings, our main concern is that we have
no clue about what will happen next.”
For his part, Jalda said that Christians have lived in
Jalda added that the Hamas
government has not succeeded in serving as a government for everyone,
and in specific, has neglected those who disagree with it intellectually and
ideologically. He said that decisions made under Hamas' rule — such as the ban
on mixed-gender schools and the ban on the import of alcoholic beverages, which
was ordered a few years ago based on a decision by the minister of interior,
not by law — hinder people with different ideologies from leading their lives
normally. Moreover, Jalda believes that implementing decisions and laws based
on religious instead of secular beliefs is a matter that raises concerns, not
only for Christians but also for leftists and secularists.
Ibrahim argues that Hamas’ attempts to ratify and Islamize
new laws in the Legislative Council have led several segments of society —
Christian or otherwise — to lose faith in the government. As a consequence, the
government has a duty to regain the trust of its citizens by presenting itself
as a national Palestinian movement.
Islam Shahwan, spokesman for
During the inteview in his office, Shahwan told Al-Monitor that
the government provides protection to churches and Christian schools, because
they are societal institutions and a part of Palestinian
history. Any attack against them by an extremist group is punished by the
law. As evidence, the perpetrators of the Holy Family attacks were arrested.
Shahwan also said that most of the incidents committed against Christians have
been criminal, not sectarian, and are simply a part of society.
Asmaa al-Ghoul is a journalist and writer from the Rafah refugee camp based in Gaza.
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