Op-Ed: The Palestinian Grinch Who Stole Christmas
Published: Tuesday, December 25, 2012 8:40 AM Arutz Sheva 7
The lives of Christians in the Arab world are filled with persecution. Israel is a different story.
Ron Jager
The writer (www.ronjager,com) a 25-year veteran of the I.D.F., served as a field mental health officer and Commander of the Central Psychiatric Military Clinic for Reserve Soldiers at Tel-Hashomer. Since retiring from active duty, he provides consultancy services to NGO’s implementing Psycho trauma and Psychoeducation programs to communities in the North and South of Israel and is a strategic advisor to the Director of the Shomron Liaison Office.
Christmas
in the City of Bethlehem located just south of Jerusalem, the Capital of
Israel, has - since the Oslo agreement - been standard holiday fare on
television news all over the world.
The Palestinian Arab Authority has always made a big deal out of the Christmas celebration, broadcasting quaint pictures of Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity and giving viewers the impression that Christianity is both protected and cherished by the Palestinian Arab Authority (PA).
PA
leaders also use the occasion to try and make the argument that the
Palestinian Arabs, rather than the Israelis, are the true descendants of
the Jewish nation that produced Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years
ago.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Moreover, the assertion that Jesus was a Palestinian Arab first aired by Yasser Arafat and often repeated by his successor Mahmoud Abbas is nothing less than a mendacious attempt to delegitimize the Jewish people and to steal Jewish history.
In a recent report by the British newspaper, The Telegraph , Christianity was said to be “close to extinction” in the Middle East. While the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt, who face the prospect of life under the Muslim Brotherhood, has garnered some attention in the past few months, Palestinian Christians have already been subjected to this sort of situation under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas and the result is the decimation of their community.
Since the time of the Oslo agreement in 1993, violence and persecution against the Palestinian Christians has been steadily on the rise. For the Christian population living in the areas controlled by the PA and in Gaza, life under the thumb of Islamists threatens their existence as a community and has forced many Christian families with deep roots in their villages to flee for their lives and abandon their homes.
In recent years, as a result of the penetration of Hamas and Islamic religious extremism, the communities of Christian Arabs have been purposely marginalized, resulting in social and economic discrimination against Christians; boycotts and extortion of Christian businesses; violations of real property rights; crimes against Christian Arab women.
As a result, 35 percent of the Christian population of the areas controlled by the PA and in Gaza has emigrated between 1967-1992 (47 percent to the United States) versus only 16 percent of the Muslim community during that period.
Despite this blatant attempt by the PA and Hamas to exterminate the Christian community, it must be noted that many Palestinian Christians leaders are Israel's most active and dangerous critics,
denouncing Israel at every occasion - especially during Christmas. In a reality where it is crucial to fit into an Arab Islamic world where the Muslim faith is the principle source of identity, Christian Arab leaders use their criticism of Israel as a litmus test that serves as "proof" of their belonging to the Muslim Arab world in which they live.
As for the “Jesus is a
Palestinian” claim; not supported by any empirical historical source
other than fictional Palestinian history books, it is a ludicrous misuse
of history that few people take seriously, but it ought not to be
ignored.
Denying the historical ties
between the Jewish people and the land of Israel has always been
integral to anti-Zionist propaganda. The point is to depict Israelis as
foreign thieves who have stolen Palestinian land rather than as Jews who
have returned to their ancestral homeland. The use of this lie is a
reminder that the ultimate goal of Palestinian Arabs as well as the
Islamists of Hamas (who have made the lives of Christians in Gaza
untenable) is to destroy Israel, not to live in peace alongside it.
Within Israel, the Christian experience a wholly different reality. Israel is the home
to some 150,000 Christians, of which 80 % are Arabs, constituting 2.1 %
of the total population. Israel is the only country in the Middle East
that welcomes Christians, offers them freedom of worship and
consequently is the only place in the whole Middle East where the
Christian population has grown.
Tags: Copts ,Christian Arabs
Labels: Christianity, Conflict, Controversy, Crisis Politics, Cults, Discrimination, Hamas, Heritage, Human Relations, Human Rights, Israel, Palestinian Authority
posted by Pieface | 8:46 AM
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