Posted on 12/28/2022 7:06:33 AM PST by SJackson
After noting that there “has been a marked uptick in religiously motivated attacks by Palestinian Muslims on Christians in Bethlehem,” a Nov. 21, 2022 report offers some examples:
Just over two weeks ago, a Muslim man was accused of harassing young Christian women at a Forefathers Orthodox Church in Beit Sahour near the city of Bethlehem. Soon after, the church was attacked by a large mob of Palestinian men who hurled rocks at the building while congregants cowered inside. Several of the congregants were injured in the attack.
The Palestinian Authority, responsible for security in the area, did nothing.
In October, unidentified gunmen shot at the Christian-owned Bethlehem Hotel after a video on social media associated the hotel with a display that included cardboard cutouts of a Star of David and a Menorah. …
No arrests were made in connection with the shooting.
Perhaps the greatest shock to the community came in April when the Palestinian evangelical pastor, Johnny Shahwan, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority security forces on charges of ‘promoting normalization’ with Israel. …
In January, a large group of masked men carrying sticks and iron bars attacked Christian brothers, Daoud and Daher Nassar, on their farm near Bethlehem. The Palestinian courts have been working to confiscate the farm that has been owned by the family since the Ottoman Empire.
Although this report focuses on recent attacks, the persecution of Palestinian Christians is a longstanding problem. As Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, Director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation, said:
Unfortunately, these recent attacks against churches are not new. Christians have been under attack in Bethlehem for many, many years. There have been bombings. There are near-constant physical attacks against Christians. They’re going on a regular basis, ever since the Palestinian Authority took over.
His words echo those of Kamal Tarazi, an elderly Christian man from Gaza who in 2019 said: “The moment they [Hamas] took control [of the Gaza Strip], they started persecuting us, ruining our churches and forcing Christians to convert to Islam.” Before fleeing, he tried to resist the Islamist takeover, including by calling on Muslims and Christians to unite against Hamas. As a result, “I was jailed several times. Do you know what a Hamas prison is? It is pure torture.”
Even mere numbers—which are inherently objective—confirm that Christians living under the PA are experiencing some sort of unpleasantry unexperienced by Muslims: In 1947, Christians made up 85% of the population of Bethlehem, an ancient Christian stronghold, whereas by 2016, they had declined to only 16%.
“In a society where Arab Christians have no voice and no protection it is no surprise that they are leaving,” Justus Reid Weiner, a lawyer acquainted with the region, said: “The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, the media and NGOs.”
This final point cannot be overstated: incidents of persecution are never reported by international media. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Christian Arab resident of Bethlehem emphasized that all of the most recent instances listed above were even underreported within Israel itself, before adding:
This needs to be heard for the purpose of educating the Jewish world and the Christian world about the state of Bethlehem. There are incidents happening constantly, whether it be neighbors against each other, or people in the streets, or even organizations and churches. Most times, it is a case of the Muslim community overpowering the minority, which is the Christian community.
Why is the persecution of Christians in Bethlehem and other PA-controlled territories so un- or under-reported? Certainly it’s not because they experience less persecution than their coreligionists throughout the Muslim world, where the bulk of the world’s persecution of Christians occurs.
“The attacks by Muslims on Christians are often ignored by the international community and media, who seem to speak out only when they can find a way to blame Israel,” wrote the Muslim journalist Khaled Abu Toameh:
Another disturbing situation is that the leaders of the Christian community in the West Bank are reluctant to hold the Palestinian Authority and their Muslim neighbors responsible for the attacks. They are afraid of retribution and prefer to toe the official line of holding Israel solely responsible for the misery of the Christian minority.
Open Doors, a human rights group that follows the persecution of Christians, reports that Palestinian Christians suffer from a “high” level of persecution, the source of which is “Islamic Oppression”:
Those who convert to Christianity from Islam, however, face the worst Christian persecution and it is difficult for them to safely participate in existing churches. In the West Bank they are threatened and put under great pressure, in Gaza their situation is so dangerous that they live their Christian faith in utmost secrecy….The influence of radical Islamic ideology is rising, and historical churches have to be diplomatic in their approach towards Muslims.
The unique situation of Palestinian Christians—living in a politically contested arena where “public image” and therefore opinion is everything—perhaps best explains the lack of exposure. “The Persecution of Christians in the Palestinian Authority,” a report by Dr. Edy Cohen, published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in May 2019, goes a long way in validating this supposition.
First, it documents more instances of persecution of Christians, all of which were back-to-back and occurred right before the report’s publication, and none of which were reported by so-called “mainstream media”:
These three attacks, which occurred over the course of three weeks, fit the same pattern of abuse that Christians in other Muslim majority regions habitually experience. While the desecration and plundering of churches is prevalent, so too are Muslim mob uprisings against Christian minorities—who tend to be perceived as dhimmis, or second-class “citizens” that should be grateful to receive any toleration at all—whenever they dare speak up for their rights, as occurred in the village of Jifna on April 25: “[T]he rioters” in Jifna, the report continues, “called on the [Christian] residents to pay jizya—a head tax that was levied throughout history on non-Muslim minorities under Islamic rule. The most recent victims of the jizya were the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria under ISIS rule.”
Moreover, as often happens whenever Christian minorities are attacked in Muslim majority nations, “Despite the [Christian] residents’ cries for help” in Jifna, “the PA police did not intervene during the hours of mayhem. They have not arrested any suspects.” Similarly, “no suspects were arrested” in the two church attacks.
However, whereas Palestinian Christians are suffering from the same patterns of persecution—including church attacks, kidnappings and forced conversion—that their coreligionists suffer in other Muslim nations, the persecution of Palestinian Christians has “received no coverage in the Palestinian media. In fact,” Cohen continues, “a full gag order was imposed in many cases”:
The only thing that interests the PA is that events of this kind not be leaked to the media. Fatah regularly exerts heavy pressure on Christians not to report the acts of violence and vandalism from which they frequently suffer, as such publicity could damage the PA’s image as an actor capable of protecting the lives and property of the Christian minority under its rule. Even less does the PA want to be depicted as a radical entity that persecutes religious minorities. That image could have negative repercussions for the massive international, and particularly European, aid the PA receives.
Put differently, the bread and butter of the PA and its supporters, particularly in the media, is to portray Palestinians in general as victims of unjust aggression and discrimination from Israel. This narrative would be jeopardized if the international community learned that Palestinians are themselves persecuting fellow Palestinians—solely on account of religion. It might be hard to muster sympathy for a supposedly oppressed people when one realizes that they themselves are doing the oppressing of the minorities in their midst—and for no other reason than religious bigotry.
Because they are so sensitive to this potential difficulty, “PA officials exert pressure on local Christian[s] to not report such incidents, which threaten to unmask the Palestinian Authority as yet another Middle East regime beholden to a radical Islamic ideology,” Cohen concludes.
Certain Palestinian Christians are also complicit. In his recent book, The Politics of Persecution, Mitri Rehab, a Palestinian academic and Lutheran clergyman living in Bethlehem, insists that whatever persecution Christians may experience in the Middle East has nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with Western or Israeli actions. In his attempt to lay the blame on anything and everything else, he even offers a section in his book on “climate change [which] will take its toll on the Christian community.”
Finally, it’s worth noting that the PA does not merely suppress news of Christian persecution; it actively advertises a false picture. Despite the rapidly dwindling number of Christians in Bethlehem, “The fact that the Palestinian Authority continues to make sure that there is a Christian mayor in Bethlehem is only window dressing,” said Rabbi Wolicki. “It’s a show used to convince the world that Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christianity is still a Christian town. It is not Christian. It is Muslim in every regard.”
And so, during this Christmas season, it is well to remember that, due to ongoing but silenced persecution, Christianity is on the verge of disappearing in the place of its birth—Bethlehem, scene of the Nativity—thereby giving the otherwise seasonally relevant words, “Silent Night,” an ominous meaning. As the most recent report asserts, “The persecution is threatening the existence of the oldest Christian community in the world.”
Interestingly most of the eastern Christians reported on here loath Jews and hate the State of Israel. It is a confessional thing. The Eastern Churches still strongly hew to the line that Jews are deicides and Satan’s offspring. Yet, like the Bahai and the Druze the only place in that region that gurantees these people freedom of conscience and worship is the JoooState Israel.
It’s too bad the invading, criminal Muslims can’t be defended against, even killed.
Time for a new Crusade.
muslims(((SPIT!)))
In 2019 I visited Israel with my church. At one point we ate lunch in a Bethlehem restaurant and our server was a Palestinian Christian. We all prayed for him and he wept in gratitude.
It’s interesting how the double standard works. The state of Israel is called an ‘apartheid state’ even though Arabs, Muslims, Christians and others can live within its borders and even be citizens. On the other hand Hamas declares that if it should take over, its state shall be ‘Judenfrei’. Penalty for selling land to Jews is a death-penalty offense.
And now we learn that Christians, even Arab Christians are not protected in territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
It is true that Arab Nazarenes generally of the orthodox groups) are almost all historically extremely antisemitic.
As a result, they allied themselves with the most radical in the Muslim world. And now, having attacked all their natural allies, find themselves very alone and persecuted.
Interestingly, the hatred-of-Jews by local Nazarenes has flipped about 180 degrees in Israel itself, with Arab Nazarenes generally being the wealthiest and most educated demographic in Israel and they are willing subject to universal military service.
Just wait until you’re out unnumbered in the USA.
They don’t dream of equality and opportunity.
They dream of enslaving and persecuting you.
Excellent points.
2nd amendment ping. It is because of weapons in the hands of individuals that has allowed israel to survive for so long.
Just wait until you’re out unnumbered in the USA. They don’t dream of equality and opportunity. They dream of enslaving and persecuting you.
Oh?
Will it be as successful as any of the others?
Yes and they have so many allied groups, queers, BLM, Antifa, historical erasure advocates, ‘the homeless’, etc that one sees the unthinkable being normalized and coming.
Get up off your a##es christians and fight
Party ownership of the print media
made it easy to manipulate public opinion,
and the film and radio carried the process further.
....... The Ministry of Truth, Winston's place of work, contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. The Ministry of Truth concerned itself with Lies. Party ownership of the print media made it easy to manipulate public opinion, and the film and radio carried the process further. The primary job of the Ministry of Truth was to supply the citizens of Oceania with newspapers, films, textbooks, telescreen programmes, plays, novels - with every conceivable kind of information, instruction, or entertainment, from a statue to a slogan, from a lyric poem to a biological treatise, and from a child's spelling-book to a Newspeak dictionary. Winston worked in the RECORDS DEPARTMENT (a single branch of the Ministry of Truth) editing and writing for The Times. He dictated into a machine called a speakwrite. Winston would receive articles or news-items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, in Newspeak, rectify. If, for example, the Ministry of Plenty forecast a surplus, and in reality the result was grossly less, Winston's job was to change previous versions so the old version would agree with the new one. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs - to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. When his day's work started, Winston pulled the speakwrite towards him, blew the dust from its mouthpiece, and put on his spectacles. He dialed 'back numbers' on the telescreen and called for the appropriate issues of The Times, which slid out of the pneumatic tube after only a few minutes' delay. The messages he had received referred to articles or news-items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to rectify. In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages; to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and on the side wall, within easy reach of Winston's arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building. As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages, he clipped his speakwritten corrections to the appropriate copy of The Times and pushed them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up the original message and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped them into the memory hole to be devoured by the flames. What happened in the unseen labyrinth to which the tubes led, he did not know in detail, but he did know in general terms. As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. In the cubicle next to him the little woman with sandy hair toiled day in day out, simply at tracking down and deleting from the Press the names of people who had been vaporized and were therefore considered never to have existed. And this hall, with its fifty workers or thereabouts, was only one-sub-section, a single cell, as it were, in the huge complexity of the Records Department. Beyond, above, below, were other swarms of workers engaged in an unimaginable multitude of jobs. There were huge printing-shops and their sub editors, their typography experts, and their elaborately equipped studios for the faking of photographs. There was the tele-programmes section with its engineers, its producers and its teams of actors specially chosen for their skill in imitating voices; clerks whose job was simply to draw up lists of books and periodicals which were due for recall; vast repositories where the corrected documents were stored; and the hidden furnaces where the original copies were destroyed. And somewhere or other, quite anonymous, there were the directing brains who co-ordinated the whole effort and laid down the lines of policy which made it necessary that this fragment of the past should be preserved, that one falsified, and the other rubbed out of existence. |
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