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  • Forgotten Christians: Not All Displaced Palestinians are Muslims

    Forgotten Christians: Not All Displaced Palestinians are Muslims,
    by Anders Strindberg

    UN Observer
    May 18 2004

    2004-05-18 | "The Palestinian Christians see themselves, and are seen
    by their Muslim compatriots, as an integral part of the Palestinian
    people, and they have long been a vital part of the Palestinian
    struggle. As the Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, the Reverend Riah Abu
    al-Assal has explained, 'The Arab Palestinian Christians are part and
    parcel of the Arab Palestinian nation. We have the same history, the
    same culture, the same habits and the same hopes.'"


    Introduction by Jude Wanniski: The Christian Palestinians.

    I've noted before the high quality of Pat Buchanan's weekly magazine,
    The American Conservative, which he co-publishes with Scott
    McConnell. There is always at least one piece in each issue that by
    itself is worth the price of admission, and always several worth
    reading. The current May 24 issue offers this dazzling piece by
    Anders Strindberg on a major missing piece to the Middle East puzzle.
    Read it and you can begin to see why the most important barrier to
    peace in the Middle East is neither Arab nor Jew, but a Christian
    Zionist from Houston named Tom DeLay. Yes, the American Jewish
    Political Establishment has a powerful lobby in Washington, but it
    would not be nearly as powerful if it did not have the leverage of
    the born-again fundamentalists.

    Jude Wanniski

    The following article is republished in conjunction with
    http://wanniski.com/

    Forgotten Christians
    Not all displaced Palestinians are Muslims.
    By Anders Strindberg

    Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" is playing to full houses in
    the Syrian capital Damascus. Watching it here turns out to be much
    the same as watching it on opening night in New York - customarily
    rowdy moviegoers observe a reverent silence, the usual sound of candy
    wrappers is replaced by sobbing and gasping, and, at the end of it
    all, the audience files out of the theater in silence and
    contemplation. Many of those watching the movie on this occasion are
    Palestinian Christian refugees whose parents or grandparents were
    purged from their homeland - the land of Christ - at the foundation of
    Israel in 1948. For them the movie has an underlying symbolic meaning
    not easily perceived in the West: not only is it a depiction of the
    trial, scourging, and death of Jesus, it is also a symbolic depiction
    of the fate of the Palestinian people. "This is how we feel," says
    Zaki, a 27-year old Palestinian Christian whose family hails from
    Haifa. "We take beating after beating at the hands of the world, they
    crucify our people, they insult us, but we refuse to surrender."

    At the time of the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, it is
    estimated that the Christians of Palestine numbered some 350,000.
    Almost 20 percent of the total population at the time, they
    constituted a vibrant and ancient community; their forbears had
    listened to St. Peter in Jerusalem as he preached at the first
    Pentecost. Yet Zionist doctrine held that Palestine was "a land
    without a people for a people without a land." Of the 750,000
    Palestinians that were forced from their homes in 1948, some 50,000
    were Christians - 7 percent of the total number of refugees and 35
    percent of the total number of Christians living in Palestine at the
    time.

    In the process of "Judaizing" Palestine, numerous convents, hospices,
    seminaries, and churches were either destroyed or cleared of their
    Christian owners and custodians. In one of the most spectacular
    attacks on a Christian target, on May 17, 1948, the Armenian Orthodox
    Patriarchate was shelled with about 100 mortar rounds - launched by
    Zionist forces from the already occupied monastery of the Benedictine
    Fathers on Mount Zion. The bombardment also damaged St. Jacob's
    Convent, the Archangel's Convent, and their appended churches, their
    two elementary and seminary schools, as well as their libraries,
    killing eight people and wounding 120.

    Today it is believed that the number of Christians in Israel and
    occupied Palestine number some 175,000, just over 2 percent of the
    entire population, but the numbers are rapidly dwindling due to mass
    emigration. Of those who have remained in the region, most live in
    Lebanon, where they share in the same bottomless misery as all other
    refugees, confined to camps where schools are under-funded and
    overcrowded, where housing is ramshackle, and sanitary conditions are
    appalling. Most, however, have fled the region altogether. No
    reliable figures are available, but it is estimated that between
    100,000 and 300,000 Palestinian Christians currently live in the U.S.


    The Palestinian Christians see themselves, and are seen by their
    Muslim compatriots, as an integral part of the Palestinian people,
    and they have long been a vital part of the Palestinian struggle. As
    the Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, the Reverend Riah Abu al-Assal has
    explained, "The Arab Palestinian Christians are part and parcel of
    the Arab Palestinian nation. We have the same history, the same
    culture, the same habits and the same hopes."

    Yet U.S. media and politicians have become accustomed to thinking of
    and talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one in which an
    enlightened democracy is constantly forced to repel attacks from
    crazy-eyed Islamists bent on the destruction of the Jewish people and
    the imposition of an Islamic state. Palestinians are equated with
    Islamists, Islamists with terrorists. It is presumably because all
    organized Christian activity among Palestinians is non-political and
    non-violent that the community hardly ever hits the Western
    headlines; suicide bombers sell more copy than people who congregate
    for Bible study.

    Lebanese and Syrian Christians were essential in the conception of
    Arab nationalism as a general school of anti-colonial thought
    following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the
    20th century. During the 1930s, Hajj Amin al-Hussein, the leader of
    the Palestinian struggle against the British colonialists, surrounded
    himself with Christian advisors and functionaries. In the 1950s and
    '60s, as the various factions that were to form the Palestine
    Liberation Organization (PLO) emerged, some of the most prominent
    militants were yet again of Christian origin. For instance, George
    Habash, a Greek Orthodox medical doctor from al-Lod, created the Arab
    Nationalists' Movement and went on to found the Popular Front for the
    Liberation of Palestine. Naif Hawatmeh, also Greek Orthodox, from
    al-Salt in Jordan, founded and still today heads up the Democratic
    Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Among those better regarded in
    the West, Hannan Ashrawi, one of the Palestinian Authority's most
    effective spokespersons, is a Christian.

    In fact, over the decades, many of the rank and file among the
    secular nationalist groups of the PLO have been Christians who have
    seen leftist nationalist politics as the only alternative to both
    Islamism and Western liberalism, the former objectionable because of
    its religiously exclusive nature, the latter due to what is seen by
    many as its inherent protection of Israel and the Zionist project.

    Among the remnant communities in Palestine, most belong to the
    traditional Christian confessions. The largest group is Greek
    Orthodox, followed by Catholics (Roman, Syrian, Maronite, and
    Melkite), Armenian Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans. There is also
    a small but influential Quaker presence. These communities are
    centered in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, and
    Ramallah.

    For them, the conflict with Israel is quite obviously not about
    Islamism contra enlightenment but simply about resistance against
    occupation. To be sure, there have been periods of tension between
    the Christian communities and members of the Islamist groups, yet to
    many Christian Palestinians the Islamist movements have emerged by
    default as the heroes in the conflict with Israel. Following the
    incremental atrophy of leftist ideals, the Islamists are seen as the
    only ones who are willing and able to fight the occupation. The
    Lebanese Hezbollah, widely seen as a nonsectarian organization that
    is able to cooperate with people of all faiths, is particularly
    admired both among the refugees in Lebanon as well as those who
    remain in Palestine. "We have received far more support and comfort
    from the Hezbollah in Lebanon than from our fellow Christians in the
    West," remarked one Christian Palestinian refugee in Damascus. "I
    want to know, why don't the Christians in the West do anything to
    help us? Are the teachings of Jesus nothing but empty slogans to
    them?"

    This is a justified and important question, but the answer is not
    straightforward. The Catholic Church has, in fact, long argued for an
    end to the Israeli occupation and for improvement of the
    Palestinians' situation. The leaders of the Eastern Orthodox churches
    have taken similar, often more strongly worded positions. Likewise,
    many Lutheran and Calvinist churches run organizations and programs
    that seek to ease the suffering of the Palestinians and draw
    attention to the injustices with which they are faced. Usually
    working within strictly religious frames of reference, however, their
    impact on the political situation has been minimal.

    This political limitation has not applied to those parts of the
    Evangelical movement that have adopted Zionism as a core element of
    their religious doctrine. Christian Zionists in the U.S. are
    currently organized in an alliance with the pro-Israel lobby and the
    neoconservative elements of the Republican Party, enabling them to
    put significant pressure on both the president and members of
    Congress. In fact, they are among the most influential shapers of
    policy in the country, including individuals such as Ralph Reed, Pat
    Robertson, and Jerry Falwell, and groups such as the National Unity
    Coalition for Israel, Christians for Israel, the International
    Christian Embassy Jerusalem, and Chosen People Ministries.

    Christian Zionism is an odd thing on many levels. A key tenet of
    Christian Zionism is absolute support for Israel, whose establishment
    and existence, it is believed, heralds Armageddon and the second
    coming of Christ. The politically relevant upshot of this is that
    without Israel's expansion there can be no redemption, and those who
    subscribe to this interpretation are only too eager to sacrifice
    their Palestinian fellow Christians on the altar of Zionism. They do
    not want to hear about coreligionists' suffering at the hands of
    Israel.

    Israeli and Jewish American leaders have until recently kept their
    distance from the Christian Zionist movement. But Beltway alliance
    politics coupled with a sharp turn to the right among American Jewish
    organizations since Israel began its onslaught on Palestinians in
    September 2000, has driven them into each other's arms.

    One of the most potent forces behind the Evangelical Zionist
    influence in Washington is Tom DeLay, leader of the Republican
    majority in the House. DeLay insists that his devotion to Israel
    stems from his faith in God, which allows him a clear understanding
    of the struggle between good and evil. Be that as it may, he is also
    able to cash in financially and politically from his position. Part
    of DeLay's growing influence within the Republican Party stems from
    the fact that his campaign committees managed to raise an impressive
    $12 million in 2001-2002. Washington Post writer Jim VandeHei
    suggested, "In recent years, DeLay has become one of the most
    outspoken defenders of Israel and has been rewarded with a surge of
    donations from the Jewish community."

    In Oct. 2002, Benny Elon, Sharon's minister of tourism and a staunch
    advocate of a comprehensive purge of Palestinians from the Holy Land,
    appeared with DeLay at the Washington convention of the Christian
    Coalition. Crowds waved Israeli flags as Elon cited Biblical
    authority for this preferred way of dealing with the pesky
    Palestinians. DeLay, in turn, received an enthusiastic welcome when
    he called for activists to back pro-Israel candidates who "stand
    unashamedly for Jesus Christ." In July 2003, Tom DeLay traveled to
    Israel and addressed the Knesset, telling the assembled legislators
    that he was an "Israeli at heart." The Palestinians "have been
    oppressed and abused," he said, but never by Israel, only by their
    own leaders. DeLay received a standing ovation.

    Christians find themselves under the hammer of the Israeli occupation
    to no less an extent than Muslims, yet America - supposedly a Christian
    country - stands idly by because its most politically influential
    Christians have decided that Palestinian Christians are acceptable
    collateral damage in their apocalyptic quest. "To be a Christian from
    the land of Christ is an honor," says Abbas, a Palestinian Christian
    whose family lived in Jerusalem for many generations until the purge
    of 1948. "To be expelled from that land is an injury, and these
    Zionist Christians in America add insult."

    Abbas is one of the handful of Palestinian Christians that could be
    described as Evangelical, belonging to a group that appears to be
    distantly related to the Plymouth Brethren. Cherishing the role of
    devil's advocate, I had to ask him, "Is the State of Israel not in
    fact the fulfillment of God's promise and a necessary step in the
    second coming of Christ?" Abbas looked at me briefly and laughed.
    "You're kidding, right? You know what they do to our people and our
    land. If I thought that was part of God's plan, I'd be an atheist in
    a second."

    Anders Strindberg is an academic and a journalist specializing in
    Mideast politics.
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