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  • Christian exodus from Holy Land

    MSNBC
    Dec 22 2004

    Christian exodus from Holy Land
    Bethlehem's fate highlights dwindling community's woes

    By Ara Ayer
    Producer
    NBC News
    Updated: 2:54 p.m. ET Dec. 22, 2004

    BETHLEHEM, West Bank - A tree stands prominently in Bethlehem's
    Manger Square. Not a Christmas pine adorned with bulbs and tinsel
    for the season, but an olive tree. The Palestinians call it "the tree
    of peace." It looks dead.


    The body of the tree — barren, broken and pruned back — is a metaphor
    for Christian life here.

    Throughout Israel and the Palestinian territories, Christians are
    losing both turf and population. Squeezed between opposing sides in
    an intractable war, Christians are slowly leaving the holy land.

    More than 110,000 Christians lived in the occupied territories before
    1948, only some 50,000 remain. Bethlehem has the largest Christian
    community — with 27,000 — but it's in decline.

    According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the lack
    of economic and social options has led more than 2,000 Christians to
    leave Bethlehem over the past four years.

    Christians forced out
    Karneg Balekdjian, a bespectacled, 30-year-old clerk for the Armenian
    Church of Jerusalem, won't be celebrating Christmas this year with
    his family.

    'If Joseph and Mary tried to come today, Israeli soldiers would check
    their papers, rummage through their baggage and rudely turn them
    away.'


    He recently packed his suitcases, said goodbye to his loved ones and
    the only home he's ever known. "I'm not leaving Jerusalem for
    opportunity," said Karneg "but for love."

    Israeli officials barred Balekdjian's 26-year old bride, Ivette
    Askandarian, from immigrating to Israel. Born and raised in Iran —
    but Christian and ethnically Armenian — Ivette couldn't even visit
    Karneg in Jerusalem yet alone live with him.

    "We had no idea," Balekdjian sighed, "our lives together would begin
    with forced separation."

    Israeli immigration rules shut out people born in countries hostile
    to Israel. Yet Jews born in those same hostile countries can visit
    Israel and immigrate without a problem.

    Balekdjian, conscious of the double standard, appealed to the Israeli
    Interior ministry with little effect. "I went to the Interior
    Ministry twice a week for almost a year, most times I couldn't even
    get through the door."

    "My wife is not Muslim, not a terrorist, not a threat to Israel,"
    said Balekdjian. "Yet as Christians we were not allowed to live
    here." He said the Armenian Church even tried to sponsor his wife
    with a job, but the Israelis said no.

    Part of the growing exodus of Christians leaving the holy land for
    better lives, Balekdjian, feels guilty for leaving his family and
    Jerusalem behind. But, he "really didn't have a choice but to join
    his wife," according to his mother, Angel Balekdjian.

    Cradling a framed photo of Balekdjian and his wife in the sitting
    room of her stone house, his mother said, "Christians will finish
    from here, slowly. Slowly we will go."

    Community marginalized
    Prior to the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, Christians
    migrated from communities in Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt
    and Lebanon to live near the holy sites in Jerusalem and nearby
    Bethlehem and support the churches.

    Business transactions, marriages and family ties connected Christian
    communities of the Near and Middle East. The Christian communities of
    Bethlehem and Jerusalem drew population, resources and income from
    Beirut, Cairo, Baghdad and Aleppo. These relationships and resources
    were severed when the Israelis took control.

    Israel's wars with its Arab neighbors and nearly 10 years of conflict
    with Palestinian Muslims have done more to isolate, marginalize and
    drive off the Christian population.

    Furthermore, when Bethlehem's Christians leave the holy land they
    often cannot come back. The reason is not Israel – but fellow
    Palestinians. As Christians leave their homes to work abroad,
    Palestinian Muslims sometimes move in to seize their property and
    land.

    For years, Christians have been complaining to the Palestinian
    Authority with little effect.

    With scarce resources shared between the Christian and Muslim
    communities, some Christians say they are easy targets for their
    Muslim brothers who control the government and militant
    organizations.

    "Even though Christians are represented in Palestinian government,"
    says Bethlehem University professor Manuel Hassassian, "they have no
    actual political power. Christian clout doesn't exist."

    Bethlehem hemmed in by wall
    A charismatic man with a calm disposition, Bethlehem's Christian
    mayor, Hannah Nasser, becomes distressed around the holidays,
    especially Christmas.

    Strolling the sparsely decorated streets, he cannot fathom how the
    Christian world's attention could be focused annually on his town and
    people, yet its predicament is ignored.

    "I'm a mayor of a jail," exclaimed Nasser. "Christmas or not,
    Bethlehem is a big prison."

    Surrounded by 78 physical barriers including concrete roadblocks, 10
    Israeli military checkpoints, 55 dirt mounds and a soon to be
    completed 39 mile-long security wall, the "little town of Bethlehem"
    of Christmas songs is an isolated, stagnant and depressing place.

    Israeli soldiers on foot patrol, in jeeps and in watchtowers monitor
    and restrict almost all pedestrian and vehicle traffic in and out of
    town.

    Nasser said Israel's zeal to stop potential attacks by Palestinian
    Muslims from Bethlehem is so great that "if Joseph and Mary tried to
    come today, Israeli soldiers would check their papers, rummage
    through their baggage and rudely turn them away."

    Scratching his balding pate, Nasser said he can't rationalize
    Israel's need for security at the expense of human rights, the rights
    of his people.

    "The mood is not joyful, no one is really out in the streets
    celebrating," he said. "Bethlehem is still under siege."

    Nasser fears that if the economic and social blockade continues,
    Bethlehem's Christian community will leave. "If things don't change
    in a generation, all that will be left is the stone churches and the
    priests who occupy them."

    Nothing left but lonely shopkeepers
    According to a recent study, published by the United Nations, Israeli
    security restrictions and the construction of its security wall
    around Bethlehem has led to the closure of 72 of 80 businesses on the
    main thoroughfare into town.

    Most of these businesses were owned and operated by Christians. In
    some cases, Israel seized Christian land and property.

    The study also cited a staggering drop-off in the tourist trade, the
    life's blood of this biblical town.

    In the past four years, the number of tourists visiting Bethlehem per
    month has dropped from 91,726 to 7,249. Driving along the streets,
    even at Christmas time, it is not uncommon to see rows of businesses
    and homes either abandoned or boarded up.

    Bethlehem's economy is so poor, restaurant owner George Nazar has
    resorted to giving away free cups of coffee.

    "I'm lonely all day," said Nazar, "if I charge for the coffee, the
    people might not come to my restaurant."

    Nazar says he's lucky to see five customers in a day, and they rarely
    buy food.

    "No one has money," cried Nazar, tears welling up in his eyes. "I
    don't make enough to pay the rent; I don't know how I'm going to buy
    Christmas presents for my kids."

    "Times are tough, and will remain tough for Christians here," said an
    old Muslim shopkeeper, afraid of giving his name.

    Surrounded by shelves of religious icons and countertops strewn with
    souvenirs imported from China, the shopkeeper shifted his weight and
    said, "only a peace between the Jews and the Muslims will help the
    Christians." Otherwise, he recommended deceit.

    "Please lie to the people," he begged. "Write an article saying
    Bethlehem is safe and peaceful this Christmas," he said. "Only the
    tourists, with their money, can save the Christians, save us all."

    Ara Ayer is an NBC News producer based in Tel Aviv.

    http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6746584/

    --Boundary_(ID_bpIwtKDQh+Q9Ww78N36SAA)--

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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