Posted on 12/23/2013 10:12:25 AM PST by Olog-hai
Israeli officials reacted with bitter scorn to a Christmas message from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in which he called Jesus a Palestinian and suggested Israel was to blame for the exodus of Christians from the Holy Land.
“He should have read the Gospel before uttering such offensive nonsense, but we will forgive him because he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Times of Israel on Monday. Abbas’s statement is an “outrageous rewriting of Christian history,” according to Palmor.
Earlier on Monday, Abbas published a lengthy Christmas greeting, calling Jesus “a Palestinian messenger who would become a guiding light for millions around the world.” Although he expressed his commitment to the peace negotiations with Israel, he expressed harsh criticism of Israeli policies, including an accusation that Jerusalem is responsible for the plight of Christians in the Holy Land. …
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
They are Trans-Jordanians living in Israel.
I prefer “Israeli citizens who are Arabs” as that is much more self-explanatory and also shows that Israeli is not an Apartheid state (like Israel’s accusers assert) and that Israel gives full, complete and equal citizenship to both segments - Jews and Arabs.
I’m afraid the term ... Trans-Jordanians living in Israel ... will simply get you a lot of blank stares, and also would confuse the issue as to whether Israel does give full and complete citizenship rights to Arabs in Israel and is definitely not an apartheid state.
> House of David, Tribe of Judah.
>
> (Yes I know I am being picky)
Thank you for the correction.
Clarity is preferable to concision.
But, yes, tribe of Judah, which is the origin of the word “Jew”.
Jesus, or Y’hshua as his mom probably called Him, is a Jew.
Now hang on just a second...
These Palestinian Israeli Arabs...are they Christians or moslems? Or are there both?
They are both, with the overwhelming majority being Muslim. To give you some numbers to chew on, here’s something you can consider ...
Religion in Israel is a central feature of the country and plays a major role in shaping Israeli culture and lifestyle, and religion has played a central role in Israel’s history. Israel is also the only country in the world where a majority of citizens are Jewish.
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the population in 2011 was 75.4% Jewish, 20.6% Arab, and 4.1% minority groups. The religious affiliation of the Israeli population as of 2011 was 75.4% Jewish, 16.9% Muslim, 2.1% Christian, and 1.7% Druze, with the remaining 4.0% not classified by religion.
Israel has no entrenched constitution, but freedom of religion is anchored in law. While the Basic Laws of Israel that serve in place of a constitution define the country as a “Jewish state,” these Basic Laws, coupled with Knesset statutes, decisions of the Supreme Court of Israel, and various elements of the common law current in Israel, also protect free practice of religion in the country.
Legal accommodation of the non-Jewish communities follows the pattern and practice of the Ottoman and British administrations with some important modifications. Israeli law officially recognizes five religions, all belonging to the Abrahamic family of religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Druzeism and the Bahá’í Faith.
Furthermore, the law formally recognizes ten separate sects of Christianity: the Roman, Armenian, Maronite, Greek, Syriac, and Chaldean Catholic Churches; the Eastern Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church; the Oriental Orthodox Syriac Orthodox Church; the Armenian Apostolic Church; and Anglicanism. Members of unrecognized religions are free to practice their religion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Israel
-— -— -— -— -—
Compare the percentage of the population that is Arab, to the percentage that is Muslim.
Further on down in the article are some more statistics ...
As of 2009, 8% of Israeli Jews defined themselves as Haredim; an additional 12% as “religious”; 13% as “religious-traditionalists” ; 25% as “non-religious-traditionalists” (not strictly adhering to Jewish law or halakha); and 42% as “secular”.
As of 1999, 65% of Israeli Jews believe in God, and 85% participate in a Passover seder. However, other sources indicate that between 15% and 37% of Israelis identify themselves as either atheists or agnostics.
A survey conducted in 2009 showed that 80% of Israeli Jews believe in God, with 46% of them self-reporting as secular.[9] Israelis tend not to align themselves with a movement of Judaism (such as Reform Judaism or Conservative Judaism) but instead tend to define their religious affiliation by degree of their religious practice.
Of the Arab Israelis, as of 2008, 82.7% were Muslims, 8.4% were Druze, and 8.3% were Christians. Just over 80% of Christians are Arabs, and the majority of the remaining are immigrants from the former Soviet Union who immigrated with a Jewish relative. About 81% of Christian births are to Arab women.
Also ...
Demographics of Israel
The demography of Israel is monitored by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. The State of Israel has a population of approximately 8,012,400 inhabitants as of 31 March 2013. 75.4 percent of them are Jewish (about 6,037,700 individuals), 20.6 percent are Arabs (about 1,656,600 individuals), while the remaining 4 percent (about 318,100 individuals) are defined as “others” (family members of Jewish immigrants who are not registered at the Ministry of Interior as Jews, non-Arab Christians, non-Arab Muslims and residents who do not have an ethnic or religious classification).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel
Well that's kind of whacked. They use the same statistic for ethnic (Jewish) background as they do for their religion.
Why aren't Polish, Russian and other European immigrants broken out. Aren't there local "Semitic" Jews that deserve to be recognized in those type of statistics.
I guess even the atheist Jews are religious ...LOL ...
In the 5th Century, he described the region as Palestine.
Well then how can you tell they’re Jews?....
Don’t answer that.
AHA!
And basically, what current countries would that region called Palestine have contained?
AHA!
And basically, what current countries would that region called Palestine have contained?
Sorry about the double
Well, according to Herodotus, the region included the area called Judea and the Jordan Valley. Therefore, Judeans are technically Palestinians.
“No, it’s a place. And if you were to move there...you could be a “Palestinian” too...
...even if you’re Japanese.”
Your ignorance is showing.
I used to joke with my father (a blonde, blue-eyed Pennsylvania Dutch convert to Judaism who married a Yemenite Jew) that he was part Palestinian because his dentures were made in Gaza by his Arab friends...
Galillaeans
I know. The quick correct on my phone kept changing it back and I finally gave up.
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