Replies

Arab speaking people have been living in the Levant for several millenia. Arab speaking people have been living in Jerusalem since Christianity was made lawful. Arab speaking people who are Christians actually control most of the buildings that Christian pilgrims go to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to see!

They didn't move to Palestine out of spite, and it wasn't simply a desolate wasteland since the days of Bar Kochba.

The primary posting in this thread perpetrates a false image of Palestine, Israel and the Levant. That image is then used to deligitimize the right of the non-Israeli population to live there, or to have any rights - that includes the Syrian Orthodox priests who have been around since the foundations of Christianity. That should demonstrate conclusively that the objective is not necessarily to deligitimize Yasser Arafat and the PA, or the Westbankers, but to deligitimize both Christianity and Islam from a presence in Israel or adjacent territories.

Arab speaking people have been living in Jerusalem since Christianity was made lawful. Arab speaking people who are Christians actually control most of the buildings that Christian pilgrims go to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to see!

you are part right-- some of the buildings in Jerusalem and Bethlehem are run by the Arab Christians.. who by the way do not, I repeat DO NOT call themselves Palestinians.. they call themselves Arab Christians who are Israeli Citizens.. I know because I have met most of them.. and they live usually in the Jewish sector.. I have spent a considerable amount of time in Israel from 1995 through 1999 and had the pleasure of meeting some of the directors of the Holy Sites.. they are well liked by the Jewish populace and are repected for their kinship... Most of them originally came from Morracco and parts of Saudi..