Lulua
28-09-2001, 11:18
Oppression seems to know no religion other than it's own ill-concieved self-impression of righteousness.
================================================== =============
ISRAEL'S SYSTEMATIC PERSECUTION OF PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS:
WATCHING HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF
Abridged and adapted from an essay by Omar Fayez
[originally distributed by IViews.com, August 31, 2001]
================================================== ====================
As soon as it came into being, the Christian minority suffered
persecution from Jewish authorities. One of their most ruthless, Saul,
once he converted, became himself the victim of the same persecution.
Today, more than two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, the
Christians of Palestine are once again being threatened by the Jews;
this time, through the Israeli policies blindly supported by the U.S.
Since the creation of Israel in 1948, through the current intifada
(civilian uprising) on September 29, 2000, Israel has systematically
harassed, beaten, killed and expelled Palestinian Christians.
Today, the birthplace of Christianity, Bethlehem and its suburbs of Beit
Sahour and Beit Jala, are encircled by Israeli tanks and heavy weapons
as means of economically blockading the area. There are more than 50
churches located here, including the Church of the Nativity and
Rachael's Tomb. Christian institutions such as the Holy Family Hospital,
Christian Society for the Holy Land Hospital, Efta Institute for the
Deaf and Dumb and the Children's Village S.O.S. are also being subjected
to this ruthless military occupation.
Like their Muslim comrades, the 50,000 Palestinian Christians living in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip suffer the same humiliations under Israeli
occupation. In the past ten months, Israel has bombed Bethlehem and its
suburbs a number of times, using U.S.-made artillery and helicopters.
While the media may focus attention on military confrontations and
diplomatic manoeuvering, there is also the economic war waged by Israel
against the Palestinians. For Palestinian Christians living in Gaza,
this high density area has been turned into a virtual prison. Factories
have stopped producing, prices of commodities have skyrocketed, schools
have been closed, transportation has stopped, fuel and electricity have
been cut off.
Palestinian Christians have also been denied medical care and many have
died at Israeli checkpoints in vain attempts to gain access to emergency
hospital treatment. The Israeli army has even attacked Palestinian
ambulances.
More than half of the Palestinian population is below the age of 16, and
hundreds of schools have been attacked, closed or seized by the Israeli
army in its systematic persecution of non-Jewish institutions; children
and teachers have lost their lives.
Late in July, 2001, when Israel attacked the predominantly Christian
village of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, a girls' orphanage was seized and
its Lutheran teachers and staff denied access to protect and comfort the
children. Bishop Munib Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in the Holy Land told the Jerusalem Post, "it is totally unacceptable to
enter church premises and frighten orphans."
On several other occasions in August, Israeli troops and police
prevented interhational volunteers with the widely respected Christian
Peacemaker Teams from bringing supplies and help to Palestinian
Christians in Beit Jala and other areas attacked by Israeli guns and
tanks. They are among civil rights organizations whose Christian members
are being marked for arrest and deportation; the Israeli army also raids
churches and had arrested and deported a number of clergy.
Bethlehem's Mayor Hanna Nasser, a Christian, is faced with the
inevitable Israeli military invasion of his beloved city. And Reverend
Mitri Raheb, Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in
Bethlehem, stated that "the worsening economic situation, due to
Israel's repeated closures, has led many to lose hope that there is
going to be peace in the region."
There is a widespread misconception in the United States that the plight
of the Palestinian Christians is due to Muslim hostility, but in this
suffering is wholly due to the hostility of Israel. For their part,
Palestinian Christians lament that the rest of the world scarcely knows
they exist, yet at the highest levels Christians are working and
struggling to save Palestine. Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian from Jerusalem
and a leading Palestinian intellectual, was recently appointed director
general of media affairs for the Arab League; PLO leader Yasser Arafat
is married to a proactive Christian woman.
Numerous Christian leaders have spoken out to support the plight of
Palestinian Christians in light of recent Israeli brutality. On August
10, 2001, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr.
Konrad Raiser, described the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian
territories as a "clear violation of international law." Additionally,
the largest Lutheran body in the U.S. called on that country's
government to withhold all economic and military aid to Israel. In
calling for such action, Lutheran leaders said they were following the
words of Jesus to comfort "the poor, the powerless and the outcast."
Palestinian Christians, like their Muslim counterparts, are victims of
official Israeli practices that blatantly discriminate on the basis of
religion. Some of these include: the prohibition of land sale or lease
to non-Jews; the denial of government funding to their educational,
social or medical institutions; the denial of recognition and government
funding for their holy and historical sites; the denial of citizenship
rights such as are guaranteed all Jews under the Law of Return; the
threat of impending legislation before the Knesset that would make
Christian missionary activity and the possession of Christian scriptures
(such as the New Testament) illegal.
Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim, view the Israeli occupation,
maintained by force and marked by daily inhumane sufferings, abuse and
violence, as a central cause of the current crisis. Israel has a
fundamental right to security, but security will not be won by the
ongoing annexation of Palestinian lands, blockades of villages,
U.S.-made F-16 fighter and Apache gunship air strikes on cities, the
wanton destruction of crops and homes, and numerous other excesses of
force.
For more than 50 years, Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian,
continue to suffer under an inhumane and brutal occupation; nearly five
million are refugees with little hope for the future. The United States
sends more than $6 billion in aid each year to Israel, but nothing to
benefit Palestinians. Instead, the U.S. taxpayer subsidizes the "gift"
of weapons that kill and maim them. These first 11 months of the
Intifada are just the beginning of the long war by desperate
Palestinians in their quest for freedom and justice. Like black South
Africans before them, the Christians and Muslims of Palestine are
determined to overcome this horrific half-century assault on their
people Palestine.
================================================== =============
ISRAEL'S SYSTEMATIC PERSECUTION OF PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS:
WATCHING HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF
Abridged and adapted from an essay by Omar Fayez
[originally distributed by IViews.com, August 31, 2001]
================================================== ====================
As soon as it came into being, the Christian minority suffered
persecution from Jewish authorities. One of their most ruthless, Saul,
once he converted, became himself the victim of the same persecution.
Today, more than two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, the
Christians of Palestine are once again being threatened by the Jews;
this time, through the Israeli policies blindly supported by the U.S.
Since the creation of Israel in 1948, through the current intifada
(civilian uprising) on September 29, 2000, Israel has systematically
harassed, beaten, killed and expelled Palestinian Christians.
Today, the birthplace of Christianity, Bethlehem and its suburbs of Beit
Sahour and Beit Jala, are encircled by Israeli tanks and heavy weapons
as means of economically blockading the area. There are more than 50
churches located here, including the Church of the Nativity and
Rachael's Tomb. Christian institutions such as the Holy Family Hospital,
Christian Society for the Holy Land Hospital, Efta Institute for the
Deaf and Dumb and the Children's Village S.O.S. are also being subjected
to this ruthless military occupation.
Like their Muslim comrades, the 50,000 Palestinian Christians living in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip suffer the same humiliations under Israeli
occupation. In the past ten months, Israel has bombed Bethlehem and its
suburbs a number of times, using U.S.-made artillery and helicopters.
While the media may focus attention on military confrontations and
diplomatic manoeuvering, there is also the economic war waged by Israel
against the Palestinians. For Palestinian Christians living in Gaza,
this high density area has been turned into a virtual prison. Factories
have stopped producing, prices of commodities have skyrocketed, schools
have been closed, transportation has stopped, fuel and electricity have
been cut off.
Palestinian Christians have also been denied medical care and many have
died at Israeli checkpoints in vain attempts to gain access to emergency
hospital treatment. The Israeli army has even attacked Palestinian
ambulances.
More than half of the Palestinian population is below the age of 16, and
hundreds of schools have been attacked, closed or seized by the Israeli
army in its systematic persecution of non-Jewish institutions; children
and teachers have lost their lives.
Late in July, 2001, when Israel attacked the predominantly Christian
village of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, a girls' orphanage was seized and
its Lutheran teachers and staff denied access to protect and comfort the
children. Bishop Munib Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in the Holy Land told the Jerusalem Post, "it is totally unacceptable to
enter church premises and frighten orphans."
On several other occasions in August, Israeli troops and police
prevented interhational volunteers with the widely respected Christian
Peacemaker Teams from bringing supplies and help to Palestinian
Christians in Beit Jala and other areas attacked by Israeli guns and
tanks. They are among civil rights organizations whose Christian members
are being marked for arrest and deportation; the Israeli army also raids
churches and had arrested and deported a number of clergy.
Bethlehem's Mayor Hanna Nasser, a Christian, is faced with the
inevitable Israeli military invasion of his beloved city. And Reverend
Mitri Raheb, Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in
Bethlehem, stated that "the worsening economic situation, due to
Israel's repeated closures, has led many to lose hope that there is
going to be peace in the region."
There is a widespread misconception in the United States that the plight
of the Palestinian Christians is due to Muslim hostility, but in this
suffering is wholly due to the hostility of Israel. For their part,
Palestinian Christians lament that the rest of the world scarcely knows
they exist, yet at the highest levels Christians are working and
struggling to save Palestine. Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian from Jerusalem
and a leading Palestinian intellectual, was recently appointed director
general of media affairs for the Arab League; PLO leader Yasser Arafat
is married to a proactive Christian woman.
Numerous Christian leaders have spoken out to support the plight of
Palestinian Christians in light of recent Israeli brutality. On August
10, 2001, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr.
Konrad Raiser, described the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian
territories as a "clear violation of international law." Additionally,
the largest Lutheran body in the U.S. called on that country's
government to withhold all economic and military aid to Israel. In
calling for such action, Lutheran leaders said they were following the
words of Jesus to comfort "the poor, the powerless and the outcast."
Palestinian Christians, like their Muslim counterparts, are victims of
official Israeli practices that blatantly discriminate on the basis of
religion. Some of these include: the prohibition of land sale or lease
to non-Jews; the denial of government funding to their educational,
social or medical institutions; the denial of recognition and government
funding for their holy and historical sites; the denial of citizenship
rights such as are guaranteed all Jews under the Law of Return; the
threat of impending legislation before the Knesset that would make
Christian missionary activity and the possession of Christian scriptures
(such as the New Testament) illegal.
Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim, view the Israeli occupation,
maintained by force and marked by daily inhumane sufferings, abuse and
violence, as a central cause of the current crisis. Israel has a
fundamental right to security, but security will not be won by the
ongoing annexation of Palestinian lands, blockades of villages,
U.S.-made F-16 fighter and Apache gunship air strikes on cities, the
wanton destruction of crops and homes, and numerous other excesses of
force.
For more than 50 years, Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian,
continue to suffer under an inhumane and brutal occupation; nearly five
million are refugees with little hope for the future. The United States
sends more than $6 billion in aid each year to Israel, but nothing to
benefit Palestinians. Instead, the U.S. taxpayer subsidizes the "gift"
of weapons that kill and maim them. These first 11 months of the
Intifada are just the beginning of the long war by desperate
Palestinians in their quest for freedom and justice. Like black South
Africans before them, the Christians and Muslims of Palestine are
determined to overcome this horrific half-century assault on their
people Palestine.