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PA Declares Church in Bethlehem to be Unlawful
INN ^ | First Publish: 3/14/2012, 11:25 AM | Rachel Hirshfeld

Posted on 03/14/2012 3:44:46 PM PDT by Olog-hai

The Palestinian Authority declared a Baptist Church in Bethlehem to be unlawful and said that it will no longer receive rights as a religious institution, Algemeiner reported.

This decision comes a week after Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told an audience of Evangelical Protestants that his government respected the rights of its Christian minorities.

“They said that our legitimacy as a church from a governmental point of view is not approved,” said an assistant pastor at the First Baptist Church. “They said they will not recognize any legal paper work from our church. That includes birth certificates, wedding certificates and death certificates. Children are not even considered to be legitimate if they don’t have recognized paperwork.”

The messianic church was subjected to an ongoing onslaught of attacks by Arabs during the height of the First Intifada.

At a recent gathering of Evangelical Protestants, Prime Minister Fayyad said that ensuring the rights of the Christian minority to access their holy sites is, in part, what it “means to be a Palestinian.”

Pastor Reverend Naim Khoury noted, however, that animosity towards the Christian minority in areas controlled by the PA continues to get increasingly worse.

“People are always telling [Christians], ‘Convert to Islam. Convert to Islam. It’s the true and right religion,’” Khoury said. …

(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Israel; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bethlehem; church; israel; jihad; palestinianauthority; waronterror
Don't tell me they aren't trying to provoke a new Crusade.
1 posted on 03/14/2012 3:44:49 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

The church needs to hire some Christian armed guards and double fast.


2 posted on 03/14/2012 4:00:37 PM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: Olog-hai
Children are not even considered to be legitimate if they don’t have recognized paperwork.

This doesn't seem to be a problem for Obama.

ML/NJ

3 posted on 03/14/2012 4:01:50 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: taxcontrol

Those moslems need Baptism by firearms really bad.


4 posted on 03/14/2012 4:13:43 PM PDT by bunkerhill7 (NY GZ illegal mosque??? ? ??????? ?? Who knew?)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

5 posted on 03/14/2012 4:17:10 PM PDT by SJackson (The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement)
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To: Olog-hai
“People are always telling [Christians], ‘Convert to Islam. Convert to Islam. It’s the true and right religion,’”

True and right 500 years after the death, burial, and ressurection of the Lord? I'll pass.

6 posted on 03/14/2012 4:23:42 PM PDT by Salvavida (The restoration of the U.S.A. starts with filling the pews at every Bible-believing church.)
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To: Olog-hai
PA Declares Church in Bethlehem to be Unlawful

Come on. Spell out Palestinian Authority for these pieces. Here I stopped in to read thinking that this had information on Pennsylvania outlawing a church in near by Bethlehem. PA means Pennsylvania in the United States.


7 posted on 03/14/2012 4:23:54 PM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Lazlo in PA

Not from an Israeli newspaper. Philly Inquirer or Allentown Morning Call would be a different story . . .


8 posted on 03/14/2012 5:11:41 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

INN is a local paper here. It is the Amish weekly written solely Pennsylvania Dutch.


9 posted on 03/14/2012 5:59:10 PM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Olog-hai

We received an email today from Pastor Steven Khoury explaining about this (below). Please pray for them.

MARCH 13, 2012

The purpose of this update is to clarify the recent online rumors of my fathers church in Bethlehem shutting down due to pressure from the Palestinian Authority (PA). Please note that this rumor is false. The origin of the rumor stemmed from a misunderstanding of a fellow brother in understanding our situation in seeking official recognition from the local city government that we are a representative church for Christians.

IT IS TRUE THAT A GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE FROM THE PLO DID COME TO THE OFFICE OF PASTOR DR. KHOURY IN BETHLEHEM ON MARCH 10, 2012 AND ONCE AGAIN DID REITERATE THAT AS OF 2010 NONE OF OUR ACTIVITIES AND PAPER WORK FROM A GOVERNMENT POINT OF VIEW IS ACCEPTED. No reason was given for the rejection of our paperwork except to an allusion that there are external pressures from outside third parties preventing any official recognition. NO THREATS FROM THE PA WERE MADE TO PASTOR DR. KHOURY OR THE CHURCH.

As of today, the person who began the rumor of our church being shut down by the PA has since retracted the statement. WE HAVE ATTACHED THE RETRACTION STATEMENT BELOW. We ask you to continually pray for our church members’ safety as well as opening the hearts of those who wish to hinder our efforts toward official recognition by the PA government. We know that our God is above bureaucracy as it says in Psalms 33:10.

God bless
THE KHOURYS AND FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

RETRACTION: http://rebrez.wordpress.com/

My statement that the Palestinian Authority told Pastor Naim Khoury
“to shut the doors–they were closing down the church” in Bethlehem is
not accurate. After a further conversation with Pastor Steven Khoury,
I realize that the church was told that the Palestinian Authority no
longer considers them legitimate and will no longer accept any paper
work from them, such as baptismal or wedding certificates. Obviously,
this appears to be a serious infringement of religious freedom and
remains a matter of grave concern. I apologize for creating confusion
by my earlier statement that the church is being shut down. Thank you.

Sincerely,

(I deleted his name for this post)


10 posted on 03/14/2012 6:13:20 PM PDT by TurkeyLurkey
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To: Olog-hai

Mucking Fuslims.


11 posted on 03/14/2012 6:25:16 PM PDT by onedoug
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Obama bows down to Saudi King | American Thinker | April 02, 2009 | Clarice Feldman | Posted on 04/02/2009 8:19:47 AM PDT by rdb3
Obama bows down to Saudi King | American Thinker | April 02, 2009 | Clarice Feldman | Posted on 04/02/2009 8:19:47 AM PDT by rdb3

12 posted on 03/14/2012 6:50:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks Olog-hai.


13 posted on 03/14/2012 6:50:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.)
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14 posted on 03/14/2012 7:08:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.)
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To: Olog-hai

I don’t understand this at all. How does a Baptist Church come under the authority of Palestinians? Is this wihtin a group of people from Palestine - some are muslim and some ANY other religion? Who or what does not know that any church, organization or person that believes in Jesus Christ, is not looked upon favorably by muslims? I can live peaceably beside any brother of mine and obviously this cannot be reversed. I live in The United States of America. Last I heard, Pennsylvania is a state of the USA and this is not condoned. I know this would not happen where I live. Which is, by the way, 20 minutes from Ground Zero. I was THERE when it happened - we couldnnn’t breathe. As a reply to this article, I would like to know what your PA oppressors think of me?


15 posted on 03/14/2012 7:22:45 PM PDT by 3eli
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To: Olog-hai

Palestinian decides a Baptist Church is unlawful in The United State of America; the state of Pennsylvania. What else is new about the Palestinians? I wish the Palestinians would try to do that in NYC, where I live. Or else I am GRAVELY misinformed by this article.


16 posted on 03/14/2012 7:22:55 PM PDT by 3eli
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To: 3eli

Dang Pennsylstinians.


17 posted on 03/14/2012 7:26:54 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: 3eli

Try the original Bethlehem . . .


18 posted on 03/14/2012 7:27:22 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

The Palestinian Authority is running Bethlehem, Pennsylvania? LOL


19 posted on 03/14/2012 9:36:21 PM PDT by MasterGunner01 (11)
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To: Olog-hai

“Don’t tell me they aren’t trying to provoke a new Crusade.”

Don’t any Christians hold back on our account. If you can boot the PA out of Ramallah, you won’t hear me conplain. The international community bugger-s@#$s will make too much noise if we do it.


20 posted on 03/18/2012 2:20:36 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 (End the occupation. Annex today.)
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