Christian persecution by Arafat: Joseph Farah reveals why 2 million have fled the Middle East

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, January 3, 2003 | Joseph Farah

[JohnHuang2]

Question: What's worse than being bullied, harassed, intimidated and persecuted for your faith?

Answer: Being bullied, harassed, intimidated and persecuted for your faith – and watching the perpetrator of these crimes against humanity successfully blame someone else for committing them.

That's exactly what is happening to Christians today in Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. They are being beaten up. They are being killed. They are having their businesses burned down. They are watching their daughters raped. They are being run out of their ancestral homelands.

And the very people doing this – Arafat's PA – are blaming it all on Israel.

The latest evidence of this campaign came on Christmas Day in an editorial in the Jordan Times.

Interestingly, the editorial doesn't sugar-coat the toll on Christians.

• "The alarm bell has already been rung," it said. "In a few decades, there may be no Christians left in the Holy Land."

• "It is time it is given its real name: Ethnic cleansing."

• "According to Palestinian experts, at least 1,500 Christian families have left Bethlehem over the past year."

• "It is a generally acknowledged fact that Palestinian Christians emigrate in proportionally higher numbers than Muslims."

All true. But the reasons for this modern-day exodus are totally obscured by the report.

After explaining that Christians tend to be professionals and belong to the middle class, the paper says it is easier for them to find employment abroad. Christians, the paper says, feel more at home in the West. It all sounds like the Jordan Times is writing this off as a voluntary phenomenon. Then the phony blame-game begins.

"A few experts have also talked of some sort of pressure from Palestinian Islamic militant groups, such as Hamas, although this phenomenon has certainly played a negligible part in the Christian exodus from the Holy Land, compared to the brutal aggression carried out by Israel," the editorial says.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This kind of distortion adds insult to injury to the remnant of Christians left in the Holy Land. They know who their enemy is. They know why are they are oppressed. They know who is attacking them. They know who is occupying them.

And it's not Israel.

I've talked to these people. I've broken bread with these people. And a new documentary, "Holy Land: Christians in Peril," made within the Palestinian Authority demonstrates just what an outrageous lie is being perpetrated by Arafat and his co-conspirators in the Arab world with regard to the persecution of Christian Arabs.

Here are the facts. Some 2 million Christians have fled the Middle East in the past 20 years. Some estimates are much higher than this. Since Arafat took over administration of the Palestinian territories from Israel the Christian population has dropped from 15 percent to 2 percent.

If these people were fleeing Israeli oppression, why did they leave after the Israelis left? It makes no sense.

The Jordan Times, apologists for Arafat to the end, knows this truth. It knows the only way Israel has sped up the exodus of Christians from the Middle East is by withdrawing from territories in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, southern Lebanon and elsewhere. When Israel administered those areas, Christian Arabs believed they had a friend in the Jewish state.

Now the protective hand of Israel has been lifted because Israel itself is under siege.

It's time for the whole world to recognize the mini-holocaust taking place against Christians in the Middle East.

As the Jordan Times wrote: "How much longer will it take for the international community to come out against the ethnic cleansing in Palestine?"

They've got that right. It is indeed a form of ethnic cleansing. But the perpetrators are not Israelis, they are Muslim Arabs, and they are acting under the color of authority of Yasser Arafat.

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[JohnHuang2]

Friday, January 3, 2003

Quote of the Day by JoeSixPack1

[Cindy]

An Informative Discussion on FREEREPUBLIC.com regarding a Guest Commentary by Evan Kholmann on NATIONALREVIEW.com: ""AXIS OF EVIL" Indicted Hamas Leader Linked to Al Qaeda Activist in Midwest" (010203)

[Highest Authority]

Let the new Crusade begin, NOW!

[fporretto]

There is no better giveaway to the malevolence of Islamic apologists (and their supporters on the Left) than this: on the vanishingly rare occasions when a Christian attacks a Muslim, they trumpet it to the skies, but on the far more frequent occasions when Muslims attack Christians, they're as silent as death.

There is no better indication of the toxicity of Islam than this: its condonement and, among many, encouragement of attacks on non-Muslims. No matter what the circumstances, Muslims always have a reason why the attacker should be excused or the victim brought it on himself.

There is no better indication of the direction of the future than this: people with something to offer are emigrating from Muslim countries as fast as their legs can carry them. Soon, Muslims will find that they're no longer able to keep their own children, even if reared in absolute isolation from any non-Muslim influence, from abandoning their homelands and seeking countries where they can be free.

We will win.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason:
http://palaceofreason.com

[TheOtherOne]

soldiers don't check the religion of the people before buldosing down their houses.

Evidence of terrrorism is all thats needed - regardless of religion. Felling sorry for some homeless friends?

[TheOtherOne]

blowing up buses is a war crime - curfews, nah.

[DugwayDuke]

So you believe Israeli actions are the cause of the exodus of Christians from lands occupied by the PLO? Do you have any evidence that Israel has bulldozed a single Christian home? Can you list the names of Christian suicide bombers conducting attacks in Israel? First you criticize the author for making unfounded assertations then you proceed to do the same thing you criticized the author for doing. This kind of logic escapes most folks.

[DugwayDuke]

"Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, collective punishments are a war crime. Article 33 of the Fourth Convention states: “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed,” and “collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” Israel, however, does not accept that the Fourth Geneva Convention or the Additional Protocols apply to the West Bank de jure, but says it abides by the humanitarian provisions without specifying what the humanitarian provisions are"

Have you read this Convention? Why does it apply to the situation in the West Bank? Why would a terrorists and those aiding terrorism be considered a "protected person" under this Convention?

BTW, the "humanitarian provisions" are specified in Art 3.

[DonQ]

Shortly after getting Bethlehem from the Israelis, about 6 years ago, Arafat re-imposed dhimmitude on the Christians there - the outcaste status imposed on non-Moslems - fired them from any civil service or managerial jobs they had held under the Israeli administration and from any public offices. The local Christians dared to stage a protest march - which was called "the Christian intifada" - Arafat's troops fired into the crowd of marchers.

[gaspar]

This exodus has been going on for more than two decades. South America is loaded with Christian Arabs who have fled Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. In Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay the "Turcos" have used their skills to carve out an important niche in the retail trade. Importantly, they know the Muslim enemy only too well and that knowledge is invaluable to the intelligence services of many countries.

[DugwayDuke]

So demolishing a "home" built without a permit is a war crime? You can't be serious. Such things happen even here in the United States. Are those enforcers of municipal zoning laws here in the United States also guilty of war crimes?

Why should we give Arafat and his terrorist buddies a chance to build a "viable state"? They've had that chance for years and the only thing they've "built" is a terrorist society devoted to the destruction of Israel. Israel is not the source of unrest, terrorism, and war in the middle east. The blame for that lies squarely upon those you support, Arafat and his terrorist organization.

Your commdenation of Arafat's actions is worthless when you also support giving that thug a state of his own to continue his agression and his terrorist activities.

As for all your links "defending" your assertation that Israel is the root cause of the exodus of Christians from the areas controlled by Arafat, keep looking, they do not support this claim of yours.

[DugwayDuke]

"I take it you are not disputing that israeli authorities deliberately destroy palistinian houses as punishment."

And, I take it that you're not disputing that this is a form of punishment for terrorist actions. Taking that as a given, then the issue becomes one of whether these actions are, as you've asserted, a form of "collective punishment" prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention. It's up to you to prove that point. (Citing biased sources such as Amnesty International or the Christian Science Monitor is not proof.) Please take note of Art 5 of that Convention when framing your response.

"Rather you have decided that "zoning laws" which deny palistinians permition to build but grant rights to jewish settlers to build in the same zone are fair and legal."

No, I've not decided that. I've only asked if the enforcement of zoning laws is, in your opinion, a war crime. I remind you that there are instances of the Israeli Army removing Jewish settlers and destroying their "homes" as well. While I don't have a cite at hand for that, I have seen film clips on CNN where this happened. I rather doubt either of us has at hand sufficient information to debate whether these "zoning laws" are fairly enforced. And, I'm sure you'll admit that would be an issue more adequately addressed by the courts where all the evidence could be layed out. I'm equally sure that you can produce all sorts of statements from people adversely affected by these "laws" but, quite frankly, most people involved in zoning disputes make similar claims. Whether these claims are valid cannot be established here.

So Arafat tolerates a few token Christians. That is hardly proof that he tolerates Christianity or any other religion or that he would continue that policy if given his own state.

"Your turn now - find me a reference to an article other than by Joseph Farah citing a specific example of Muslim Palastinians targeting christian palistinians."

You can't be serious? Where were you when "Muslim Palestinians" occupied and desecrated the Church Of the Nativity just last year. The list of persecutions of Christians and Jews is quite lengthy including the throwing of stones at Jews praying at the Wailing Wall, the descretion of Jewish cemetaries, the building of Mosques upon ground considered sacred by Christianity and Jews.