Christmas wish list

Will the most memorable Holy Land image of Christmas 2005 be the siege of Manger Square in Bethlehem last week by hundreds of gunmen from the Aksa Martyrs Brigades?

And if it is, what does this foreshadow for a Christian Arab minority destined to live under a sovereign Palestinian state? The gunmen, underscoring the lawlessness to which Bethlehem and other places in the Palestinian Authority are subjected, held up the municipality demanding jobs with the PA's security forces.

In light of the season and international attention focused on the nearby Church of the Nativity, revered as Christ's birthplace, the PA moved to quickly find a solution to the standoff. A short while later Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh urged foreigners to visit his "peaceful city," saying: "There's no reason tourists shouldn't come. Our great city depends on tourism for its economic survival." Palestinian officials, though, need to start thinking about Christians - Palestinian Arabs as well as visiting pilgrims - not only as sources of tourist revenue, but as having a rightful connection to this shared and holy place.

The sad fact is that many Christians no longer feel at home in a city that was once over 90 percent theirs. Today Christians comprise less than a quarter of Bethlehem's population. And their numbers are constantly dwindling. While it may be good public relations, it isn't enough for PA officials to attend Christmas services once a year. Christians must be made to feel safe in a Palestinian political environment which is increasingly taking on Islamist overtones.

With (anticipated) Palestinian sovereignty also comes responsibility. Is the Palestinian leadership - which polls now suggest will include members of the Islamist Hamas movement - ready, as well as able, to protect minority Christian Arabs from discrimination and intimidation?

If history is any indication, there is plenty of room for concern. The Aksa Brigades who commandeered Manger Square last week had no qualms, a few years ago, about turning Beit Jala's Christian residents into virtual human shields by firing from their homes into Jerusalem's nearby Gilo neighborhood. In the spring of 2002, they also overran and occupied the Church of the Nativity for a month.

Paradoxically, many Christians outside the region worry that if they publicly criticize the powers that be in the Palestinian Authority, they will only be making things worse for their brethren who live there.

The situation is further complicated by those Palestinian Christians who associate themselves with fading Arab nationalism in general and the Palestinian national struggle in particular. Conveniently, key PA spokespeople such as Hanan Ashrawi are Christian. And it is in their obvious interest to spotlight Israel's missteps vis-a-vis Arab Christians in the Holy Land even as they do their best to shield PA wrongdoing.

Yet it is not enough, particularly on this day, to point to PA transgressions. Inside Israel, Christian Arabs sometimes find themselves wedged between an indifferent Jewish majority and an increasingly assertive Muslim minority.

Though 80 percent of the approximately 150,000 Christians across the Holy Land are Arab, the community is heterogeneous. For instance, the Copt, Armenian, Ethiopian and Syrian denominations are non-Arab. And Israel's failure to recognize Christian diversity and make affirmative efforts to reach out to non-Arab Christians remains an appalling failure.

On the bright side, Israel is one of the few countries in the region where Christian communities have grown and thrived in recent decades. Israel's Arab Christians maintain among the highest matriculation scores of any population; proportionally, Arab Christians also produce very high numbers of university graduates.

On the other hand, across the denominational and ethnic divide, Christian leaders complain - some irately, others with understanding of our security dilemmas - that the Jewish state does not always treat them with respect or sensitivity.

Even as we express disquiet for the well-being of Christians under Palestinian jurisdiction, we must not lose sight of our own shortcomings. It is in Israel's interest to foster the natural alliance with Christendom. But more importantly still, Judaism demands we respect the "stranger among us."

We wish our Christian readers marking the festival of Christ's birth (and those in the eastern tradition who observe the holiday on January 6) a Merry Christmas and a peaceful 2006.

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Thanks for the ping. You do find some good articles.

There may be an innocuous reason for this (sans the respect part). The Christians are not actively killing Israelis. Maybe if the Palis, et. al. quit killing the Jews, then the Israeli government can allocate more time and resources towards understanding,and sensitivity.

Just my take...

5.56mm

"Israel is one of the few countries in the region where Christian communities have grown and thrived in recent decades.

Ping, ping, and ping! This must gall the bleep out of all the pro-Philistine liberal CINOs and their MSM allies! Like I've said for years, if I had to live as a Christian minority anywhere between Morrocco and Pakistan, the only place I would choose is Israel. Life for Christians in any Islamic country is tenous at best and very dangerous for the most.

"This must gall the bleep out of all the pro-Philistine liberal CINOs and their MSM allies!"
Big puddles of bile laying at their feet. I notice some of us use the term Philistine. Just for the record. There are no such peoples left on earth. The Israelites wiped them out some 2800 years ago. Just in case some of our FR's are not up on this stuff. The Philistines where a very aggresive tribal group that occupied part of the southwest part of Palestine.
The name Philistine was first used amoung the Egyptians to describe the "sea peoples" who where defeated by Armeses III in 1188 BC. Amoung the Assyrians the group was known as Pilisti or Palastu, but the origin of the term is uncertain.
Bottom line is they are no more, as those that remained the Canan/Gaza area where their end came some time after David whacked Goliath in the head, and finally the remenent was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in 597,587 BC..

Yeah, I know. The Philistines were major bad guys, and their antics in the Old Testament match those of the contemporary ones termed "Palestinians."

"The Philistines where a very aggresive tribal group that occupied part of the southwest part of Palestine."

Pretty much describes the current ones.

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