'Muslims persecuting Bethlehem's Christians' [Israel's Fault]

YNet News ^ | Dec. 27, 2005 | Aaron Klein

[Alouette]

Store owner in West Bank city says 'We are harassed, but you wouldn't know the truth. No one says anything publicly about the Muslims'

With Christmas services here drawing far fewer tourists than in the 1990s and the town's Christian population now at an all-time low, many world leaders and hundreds of major media outlets this week blamed Israel for Bethlehem's decline – often citing false information – while a simple talk with the town's residents reveals a drastically different picture. They say Muslim persecution has been keeping Christians away.

"All this talk about Israel driving Christians out and causing pain is nonsense," a Bethlehem Christian community leader told WND. "You want to know what is at play here, just come throughout the year and see the intimidation from the Muslims. They have burned down our stores, built mosques in front of our churches, stole our real estate and took away our rights. Women have been raped and abducted. So don't tell me about Israel. It's the Muslims."

The Bethlehem leader, like many Christians on the streets here, would not provide his name for publication for fear of retaliation.

Bethlehem's Christian population has declined drastically after the Palestinian Authority took control in December, 1995. Once 90 percent of the city, Christians now compose less than 25 percent, according to Israeli survey information. Christmas celebrations this year attracted about 30,000 tourists – 10,000 more than last year but down from an average of 150,000 in 1994.

Muslim hostility

Many Christians told WND they face constant Muslim hostility.

One religious novelty-store owner cited examples of Muslim gangs defacing Christian property, the PA replacing Christian leaders on public councils with Muslims, and armed Palestinian factions stirring tensions. One such incident was last week's storming of Bethlehem's City Hall, across the street from the Church of the Nativity, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, by gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group.

The store owner said "We are harassed but you wouldn't know the truth. No one says anything publicly about the Muslims."

Indeed many leaders in attendance at Christmas Eve Mass in Bethlehem last night took the occasion to blame Israel's recently constructed security fence in the area for Christian woes.

In a televised midnight Christmas speech, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said "Palestinians are seeking a bridge to peace instead of Israeli walls. Unfortunately, Israel is continuing with its destructive policy ... (and) transforming our land into a big jail."

Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, speaking at St. Catherine's Church, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, called for Israel to remove its "separation barrier, which is causing all kinds of hardships and affecting normal life in Bethlehem."

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, urged Israel "to build bridges and not walls" and blamed Israel for "(compelling Christians) to leave the land of their birth for foreign lands on account of the political situation."

And a sampling of American media coverage of this weekend's festivities seems to find Israel mostly at fault for the decline in Christian living conditions and population figures.

A widely printed Associated Press article by staff writer Sarah El Deeb opens, "Thousands of tourists and pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations Saturday, bringing a long-missing sense of holiday cheer to Jesus' historic birthplace. ... But Israel's imposing separation barrier at the entrance to town dampened the Christmas spirit and provided a stark reminder of the unresolved conflict."

Today's San Francisco Chronicle states, "For centuries, pilgrims from around the world converged on the Palestinian town of Bethlehem at Christmas, packing Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. ... In 2002, Israel began building a 25-foot concrete wall around the city, severing it from Jerusalem and the northern West Bank. Today, the streets of Bethlehem are quiet."

An earlier article by the Chicago Tribune blamed Israel's fence, constructed in 2002, for collapsing Bethlehem's economy and prompting Christians to leave, even though the mass exodus began seven years prior.

"A towering wall of gray concrete slabs, 30 feet high, cuts across what was once the main road into this town from Jerusalem. Just inside the barrier, past a new Israeli security terminal, a once-bustling neighborhood has become a ghost town. Shops are shuttered or empty, and the streets are deserted. ... The deteriorating economy has led to a steady exodus of the city's Christian residents," the Tribune article reads.

Inaccurate

HonestReporting.com notes the various press accounts are factually inaccurate.

Contrary to the Chronicle report and scores of other media accounts, there is no barrier that encircles Bethlehem. A fence exists only where the Bethlehem area interfaces with Jerusalem, and only a small segment of the fence is a concrete wall, which Israel says is meant to prevent gunmen from shooting at Israeli motorists.

The Bethlehem economy the past few years has actually improved significantly. Tourism has doubled compared to last year, and Bethlehem's main industries are up: Textiles by 50 percent, stone and marble export by 40 percent, and commercial transportation 20 percent. The increases have reportedly brought an influx of millions of dollars into the Bethlehem local economy.

Israel says the Israeli Defense Forces this year is making access to Bethlehem easier for tourists. IDF Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel said, "The military will try to speed the process by not checking every tourist bus, but conducting spot checks of random buses instead." The IDF also instituted a bus shuttle service to Bethlehem to speed travel time to the city.

For years, Bethlehem was largely Christian. But when the PA took control in 1995 it publicly expanded Bethlehem's boundaries reportedly to ensure a Muslim majority, incorporating into the city over 30,000 Muslims from adjacent refugee camps. Then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally replaced the Christian-dominated city council with a largely Muslim leadership.

Reprinted by permission of World Net Daily

[Alouette]

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

[Zionist Conspirator]

"All this talk about Israel driving Christians out and causing pain is nonsense," a Bethlehem Christian community leader told WND. "You want to know what is at play here, just come throughout the year and see the intimidation from the Muslims. They have burned down our stores, built mosques in front of our churches, stole our real estate and took away our rights. Women have been raped and abducted. So don't tell me about Israel. It's the Muslims."

Someone needs to tell this to the Middle Eastern chr*stian diaspora, who organize a lot of anti-Israel conferences and events supporting the PLO and attacking Israel.

Meanwhile many still in Israel (Bethlehem is in 'Eretz Yisra'el, not the "west bank") continue to identify with the PLO in order to prove they are "real" Arabs (many Arab Communists are actually from chr*stian rather than moslem backgrounds, just as many western Communists have been from Jewish backgrounds; it's a way of escaping minority status). Looks like some of them at least are speaking out now. Betcha this poor man gets branded a traitor by Sabah and the other chr*stian patriarchs in Israel, who are all fanatically anti-Jewish and pro-Arab (American-style Fundamentalism doesn't exist in the ancient churches, who have declared that "Zionist chr*stianity is not chr*stianity at all").

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Someone needs to tell this to the Middle Eastern chr*stian diaspora, who organize a lot of anti-Israel conferences and events supporting the PLO and attacking Israel.

This is sadly true. I have a large number of Arab Christian friends, virtually all of whom are rabidly anti-Israel. They don't seem to get it that siding with Muslims is a losing proposition for them, since they Muslims hate Christians almost as much as they hate the Jews. (I'm told they say in their sermons, "First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.")

[brushcop]

Wow, those are Arab "Christian" friends? They need to read that book that they supposedly believe in... And they might try practicing what they're preaching--WAIT, no, they're preaching destruction of the Jews! Well, I guess that goes hand-in-hand with the "Christian" churches here spouting their anti-Israeli rhetoric.

[Itzlzha]

Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, speaking at St. Catherine's Church, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, called for Israel to remove its "separation barrier, which is causing all kinds of hardships and affecting normal life in Bethlehem."

Perhaps these "Christian" Dhimmis might like to read the National Review Online article on Dhimmitude...but let me make a small excerpt here...

"Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), perhaps the preeminent Islamic scholar in history, summarized five centuries of prior Muslim jurisprudence with regard to the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad:

In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation to] convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force... The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense... Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations."

Gee, and the Marxiststream Mediots follow their current poilicy of sitting in a comfortable Hotel sipping adulterated "Sweet Tea" and buying what the Islamazis sell them....all the while licking the hand of their Masters, and putting their own collars and chains on, while demanding that their "readers" follow their example! And it's always the "Joooooooos" that stand in the way of the Islamazi vision of "Peace"!

Not "No"...but "HELL NO!"

[Convert from ECUSA]

Ping!

[Zionist Conspirator]

It must be remembered that Arab chr*stians are mostly members of the ancient liturgical (Catholic and Orthodox) churches which are against the Jews coming back to Israel to begin with. Then there's the fact that these "palestinian" Arab chr*stians have come up with the idea that they are the descendants of the original first century chr*stians. Never mind that the first chr*stians were Jews, that the Arabs didn't invade Israel until the seventh century, that after the deportations of the years 70 and 135 the Romans barred all Jews (including chr*stian Jews) from living in Jerusalem, which they plowed up with oxen and sowed with salt and made into a Hellenistic pagan city. Never mind all that. To the indigenous ancient churches (the most anti-Semitic in the entire world) all that has been forgotten and today's Arabs chr*stians are supposedly the direct lineal descendants of the apostles who have supposedly lived there for two thousand solid uninterrupted years!

[VOA]

bump

[Hildy]

I spent Christmas Eve in Bethlehem about 28 years ago and thanks to the Muslims, I and my friend had, quite possibly, the worst night of our lives.

[Zionist Conspirator]

I spent Christmas Eve in Bethlehem about 28 years ago and thanks to the Muslims, I and my friend had, quite possibly, the worst night of our lives.

It does sound scary.

[Hildy]

There were just so many people and the Arab men took the opportunity to grope as many women as they could. You couldn't get away from it...because there were so many people.

[Zionist Conspirator]

There were just so many people and the Arab men took the opportunity to grope as many women as they could. You couldn't get away from it...because there were so many people.

I don't mean to ask a question in bad taste, but how do you know chr*stian Arabs don't grope? I mean . . . are chr*stian Arabs more devout and puritanical than moslem Arabs? I honestly don't know.

[Hildy]

That's a good question. I've made the assumption for so long. But you're right. Somehow, though...they just didn't look like they were there to worship Christ.

[brushcop]

And thanks for that, you sent me back to the books--and The Book playing catch-up but I appreciate it. Nothing happens in a vaccuum. The thread continues...