    Forgotten Christians; Not all displaced Palestinians are Muslims

    By Anders Strindberg

    The American Conservative 18 May 2004

    http://amconmag.com/2004_05_24/article.html

    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.