Jerusalem Issue Brief
Institute for Contemporary Affairs
founded jointly at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
with the Wechsler Family Foundation

Vol. 6, No. 14 - 6 December 2006

Christians Flee Growing Islamic Fundamentalism in the Holy Land
Justus Reid Weiner

· The Christian population of the areas under the control of the
Palestinian Authority (PA) has sharply declined in recent decades, as tens
of thousands have abandoned their holy sites and ancestral properties to
live abroad. Those who remain comprise a beleaguered and dwindling minority.
In sharp contrast, Israel's Christian community has prospered and grown by
at least 270 percent since the founding of the state.

· While Israel understands that the construction of the security
barrier inconveniences some of the Christian communities living in its
vicinity, Israel has shown sensitivity to Christian interests in planning
the route of the barrier.

· The plight of Christian Arabs remaining in the PA is, in part,
attributable to the adoption of Muslim religious law in the PA Constitution.
Israel, by contrast, safeguards the religious freedom and holy places of its
Christian (and Muslim) citizens. Indeed, in recent years Israel has been
responsible for restoring many of the churches and monasteries under its
jurisdiction.

· The growing strength of Islamic fundamentalism within the
Palestinian national movement poses problems for Christians, who fear they
will be deemed opponents of Islam and thereby risk becoming targets for
Muslim extremists. This is exacerbated by the fact that Hamas holds
substantial power and seeks to impose its radical Islamist identity on the
entire population within the PA-controlled territories.

Who Threatens Christians in the Holy Land?

Palestinian Christians have a higher rate of emigration compared to
Palestinian Muslims and the Christian population of the West Bank and Gaza
has plunged from about 20 percent after World War II to less than 1.7
percent now.1 Tens of thousands have abandoned their holy sites and
ancestral properties to live abroad.2

Some senior Christian clerics claim that the dramatic rise in Christian
emigration from PA-controlled territories is a result of the Israeli
"occupation."3 However, in-depth research demonstrates that the precipitous
decline in the Christian population is primarily a result of social,
economic, and religious discrimination and persecution within Palestinian
society in the West Bank and Gaza.

In a July 3, 2006, article, "Who Harms Holy Land Christians?," syndicated
columnist Robert D. Novak, a long-time critic of Israel, paraphrased a
letter from Michael H. Sellers, an Anglican priest in Jerusalem, to U.S.
Congressmen Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Joseph Crowley (D-NY), who were
circulating a draft resolution blaming the Christian decline on the
discriminatory practices of the Palestinian Authority.4 Sellers insisted
that "the real problem [behind the Christian Arab exodus] is the Israeli
occupation - especially its new security wall."

Yet two-thirds of the Christian Arabs had already departed between 1948 and
1967, when Jordan occupied the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza Strip, prior to
the "occupation" and decades before construction began on the security
barrier to protect Israel's population from waves of deadly suicide bombers.
During the same period, hundreds of thousands of Christians were leaving
other Muslim-ruled countries in the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa.
Every one of the more than twenty Muslim states in the Middle East has a
declining Christian population. In fact, Israel is the only state in the
region in which the Christian Arab population has grown in real terms - from
approximately 34,000 in 1948 to nearly 130,000 in 2005.5

Novak also refers to Sellers as "coordinator of Jerusalem's Christian
churches." Actually, there are at least 16 traditional, Oriental, and
Protestant churches represented in Jerusalem, yet only three other clergymen
signed the letter with Sellers - and all three are known for their close
loyalty to Arafat's Palestinian nationalism.

Israel's Security Barrier

Novak also quotes Father Faras Arida, a Catholic priest in the West Bank
village of Aboud, who asserts that the security barrier costs villagers
their water and olive trees. In fact, the water resources used by Aboud will
remain on the side of the barrier where the village is situated. At the same
time, the Israeli government is to fully compensate farmers for the 1,500
olive trees uprooted during the barrier's construction.

Although the security barrier inconveniences some West Bank residents, it
was designed to include dozens of gates for transit and agriculture for
those on legitimate business, including Christian residents, pilgrims, and
clergy. As noted by former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Jack Kemp, Israel has displayed particular sensitivity to Christian
religious concerns, taking measures to ensure their access to holy sites. To
this end, Israel has negotiated with Christian communities directly impacted
by the barrier, and has, in some instances, rerouted construction to better
accommodate their requests.6

Significantly, the barrier would not exist but for Palestinian terrorism.
Israelis across the political spectrum would reject any demand to remove the
security fence before the Palestinians stop their attacks. The blame for its
construction belongs squarely on the Palestinian leadership that sponsored
years of bloody terrorism against Israeli civilians. Prior to the erection
of the fence, Palestinian terror killed an average of 103 Israelis and
wounded 688 each year. After the completion of the first portion of the
fence, an average of 28 people were killed and 83 wounded per year - a
decrease of approximately 90 percent.7 The last two "successful" suicide
bombers in Jerusalem murdered a total of 18 people by entering through
unfinished portions of the barrier near Bethlehem.

Novak also ignores the Palestinians' refusal to negotiate the occupation's
end. In 2000 and 2001 Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority rejected a
generous Israeli offer of a Palestinian state comprising the Gaza Strip,
much of eastern Jerusalem, and virtually all of the West Bank in exchange
for peace with Israel. Rejecting even Arafat's façade of negotiations,
Hamas, which won the January 2006 Palestinian elections, has demonstrated no
interest whatsoever in any negotiated settlement with Israel.

Islamic Religious Extremism

Novak further alleges that I initiated the congressional letter that blamed
the Palestinian Authority for the flight of Christian Arabs from the Holy
Land - a role that exists only in the columnist's imagination. I am a
scholar who has spent nine years researching this subject. In the process I
have interviewed scores of Christian Arabs, and published five scholarly
articles and a monograph on the topic - none of which Novak saw fit to
cite.8

From Christian Arabs under the thumb of the PA, I have heard testimony of
forced marriages of Christian women to Muslim men, death threats against
Christians for distributing the Bible to willing Muslims, and Christian
women intimidated into wearing traditional ultra-modest Islamic clothing.
Churches have been firebombed (most recently in Nablus, Tubas, and Gaza when
the Pope made his controversial remarks) and/or shot up repeatedly. And this
is the tip of the iceberg.

Under the Palestinian Authority, whose constitution gives Islamic law
primacy over all other sources of law, Christian Arabs have found their land
expropriated by Muslim thieves and thugs with ties to the PA's land
registration office. Christians have been forced to pay bribes to win the
freedom of family members jailed on trumped-up charges. And Arabs -
Christians and Muslims alike - have been selling or abandoning homes and
businesses to escape the chaos of the PA and move to Israel, Europe, South
America, North America, or wherever they can get a visa.

* * *

Notes

1. Other factors include declining economic conditions in the PA (J. C.
Watts, "Yasser Arafat vs. Christians," Washington Times, Dec. 4, 1997, at
A19) and Islamic law in the PA Constitution (David Bedein, "Final Version of
Official Palestinian State Constitution," Makor Rishon [Hebrew], April 17,
2003).
2. For further reading on the plight of Christian Arabs, see Justus Reid
Weiner, Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society (2005). This
monograph can be downloaded free of charge at
www.jcpa.org/christian-persecution.htm. It is also available to purchase
from amazon.com.
3. These Christian clerics include Michael Sabbah, Munib Younan, and Riah
Abu el-Assal.
4. Robert D. Novak, "Who Harms Holy Land Christians?," Washington Post, July
3, 2006.
5. Eric Rozenman, "False Premises, Repeated Errors in Robert Novak Column on
Christian Arabs," March 17, 2006, available at:
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=6&x_article=1098. This is a
response to an earlier publication by Novak.
6. Jack Kemp, "Absolute Necessity," New York Sun, April 26, 2006, available
at http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=31674. This is a response to a previous
publication by Novak.
7. Israeli Ministry of Defense, "Security Fence's Effectiveness," News
Brief, July 1, 2004, available at
http://www.securityfence.mod.gov.il/Pages/ENG/news.htm#news19.
8. See additional related scholarship by Justus Reid Weiner: "Human Rights
Trends in the Emerging Palestinian State: Problems Encountered by Muslim
Converts to Christianity," 8(3) Michigan State Journal of International Law
539 (1999); Appendix "Israel and Palestine" to Forum 18 Report "Freedom of
Religion: A Report With Special Emphasis on the Right to Choose Religion and
Registration Systems," financed by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (February 2001); "Palestinian Christians: Silent Victims of a
Zero-Sum Game," 8(2) Mediterranean Journal of Human Rights 383 (2004);
"Palestinian Christians: Equal Citizens or Oppressed Minority in a Future
Palestinian State," 7 Oregon Review of International Law 26 (Spring 2005);
and "Palestinian Christians: A Minority's Plea for Rights Silenced by the
Politics of Peace," The Journal of Human Rights (October 2005).

* * *
Justus Reid Weiner, Esq., teaches human rights and international law at
Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has been a visiting professor at Boston
University Law School and authored the monograph Human Rights of Christians
in Palestinian Society, published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
and available at: www.jcpa.org/christian-persecution.htm. The author extends
his appreciation to Ilana Hart for her assistance in preparing this article.

This Jerusalem Issue Brief is available online at:
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