The Mayor of Bethlehem is Christian, but It’s Hamas That’s in Charge

Chiesa.com ^ | December 29, 2005 | Sandro Magister

[NYer]

ROMA, December 29, 2005 – Thirty thousand pilgrims from all over the world came to Bethlehem for Christmas, one third more than the previous year. The leader of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, a Muslim, attended the midnight Mass at the basilica of the Nativity. And in his homily, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, an Arab, hailed him as a man of peace, reserving his protest for “the wall raised up before us, forcing us to live as if in a prison, our lands confiscated, our young men carried away at night and thrown into the Israeli prisons.”

But in the city where Jesus was born, relations between Christians and Muslims are more complicated than they appear.

Christians are no longer the majority of the 30,000 inhabitants of the city, as they always were in the past The Muslims are now more numerous than the Christians in the same proportion that the mosques exceed the churches, by a margin of 15 to 10.

The mayor of Bethlehem is still a Christian, as always. Eight out of the fifteen seats on the city council are still reserved for Christians. But in the latest municipal elections, which took place in May of 2005, a coalition with crucial support from the Muslims of Hamas emerged victorious.

The leader of the Hamas contingent in the municipal council of Bethlehem, Hassam El-Masalmeh, exalts the suicide attacks against the Jews, and asserts that these will continue until all of Palestine, including the territory of Israel, is under Palestinian control.

But mayor Victor Batarseh, a practicing Catholic, condemns the terrorist attacks and wants Hamas to stop carrying them out. He says that he is ready for a territorial compromise with Israel in order to bring about a true Palestinian state. But even before the latest municipal elections, he chose Hamas as his main ally, together with another extremist group called Islamic Jihad.

* * *
During the 1990’s, Bethlehem was governed by men connected with Yasser Arafat’s party, Fatah.

These men were accused of corruption and abuses against the Christian population. When the second intifada broke out, in 2000, part of Arafat’s security forces formed a new armed group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

In April of 2002, guerillas connected with Fatah, under hot pursuit from Israeli troops, occupied the basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and – a lesser-known fact – other convents and Christian institutions in the city. The crisis developed before the eyes of the world, and ended with the liberation of the basilica. The leaders of the uprising were transferred to Gaza, and to a few European countries.

Hamas quickly stepped into the vacuum that was created. It won the favor of a large part of the population of Bethlehem, creating initiatives for health care, the care of orphans, union protection for workers, and fighting corruption. Future mayor Victor Batarseh, 71 years old, a doctor who had once been a militant in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, allied himself with Hamas and against the Fatah party, in view of the municipal elections in May of 2005. His platform was the fight against corruption, transparent government, and the improvement of citizens’ lives. According to his agreement with Hamas, the reasons for religious division between Christians and Muslims were to be kept at bay.

Batarseh was elected mayor, and the coalition he presided over began to put its plans into practice. It banned the use of municipal vehicles for private purposes; it closed unauthorized businesses; it put new rules in place for public works contracts, aimed at eliminating the waste of money; it fired the municipal employees who were on the payroll but didn’t do any work.

The men connected to Fatah reacted in a variety of ways. A few days before Christmas, militants of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades occupied the city hall in Bethlehem, demanding back pay and new hiring.

But the reactions drew upon other fears as well. Hanna Nasser, the previous mayor of Bethlehem, a Christian of the current that is close to Fatah, accused the new administration of “spreading Islamic fundamentalism.”

It is a fear that took shape after the electoral victory of Hamas, not only in Bethlehem’s municipal elections, but also in those of other cities of Cisjordan: Nablus, Jenin, Qalqilya. A new style can already be seen in the municipalities where Hamas is installed: Christian women employed there, who are accustomed to shaking everybody’s hand, are held at a distance by the newly elected, for whom physical contact violates Islamic principles.

The general plan of Hamas also includes the imposition of a special tax, called al-jeziya, upon all of the non-Muslim residents in the Palestinian territories. This tax revives the one applied through all of Islamic history to the dhimmi, the second-class Jewish and Christian citizens.

In an interview with Karby Legget, published in the December 23-26 edition of “The Wall Street Journal,” Masalmeh, the leader of the Hamas contingent at the municipal council of Bethlehem, confirmed: “We in Hamas intend to implement this tax someday. We say it openly – we welcome everyone to Palestine but only if they agree to live under our rules.”

Batarseh, the mayor, doesn’t agree. He doesn’t want the tax, and says it will never be introduced.

He knows well that living with Hamas is difficult. But he says he is convinced that “the only way to make Hamas more moderate is to bring them inside the system.”

It is the same gamble that Mahmoud Abbas has on a number of occasions said he will make: integrating Hamas into the political system so that after this it will abandon terrorism. But neither Israel nor the United States is willing to recognize Hamas as a party to dialogue unless it first abandons terrorism.

General political elections will be held in the Palestinian territories at the end of January. The puzzle that emerges may already have been written in Bethlehem.

[NYer]

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas(L) attends a dinner at the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem with Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah(C). Sabbah used his annual Christmas sermon in Bethlehem to pray for a holy land 'thirsting for peace' as he urged political leaders to create life rather than death.(AFP/Awad Awad)

[NYer]

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, center, celebrates a Christmas morning Mass in St. Catherine's Catholic Church at the Church of the Nativity compound in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Sunday Dec. 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[NYer]

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, center right, exchanges words with Israeli President Moshe Katsav, as Former Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Irineos I, background center, looks on during the annual New Year's reception for Christian leaders at the President's House, in Jerusalem, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005. In an unusual spectacle, the Holy Land's Latin Patriarch, Michel Sabbah, exchanged sharp words with Katsav at the reception. Sabbah criticized the Israeli president's speech at the reception for being unfair toward the Palestinians, and Katsav scolded Sabbah for statements critical of Israel during Christmas in Bethlehem. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

[2banana]

The general plan of Hamas also includes the imposition of a special tax, called al-jeziya, upon all of the non-Muslim residents in the Palestinian territories. This tax revives the one applied through all of Islamic history to the dhimmi, the second-class Jewish and Christian citizens.

In an interview with Karby Legget, published in the December 23-26 edition of “The Wall Street Journal,” Masalmeh, the leader of the Hamas contingent at the municipal council of Bethlehem, confirmed: “We in Hamas intend to implement this tax someday. We say it openly – we welcome everyone to Palestine but only if they agree to live under our rules.”

This is just the beginning for an infidels living under islamic rule...

[hershey]

The Pavlovian principle works every time. Positive reinforcement begets more of the same behavior. So if you reward terrorist thugs after they take over buildings, churches, etc., and kill a few people, they'll simply murder more people the next time they want something. There's no reasoning with Islamofascist thugs.

[Publius6961]

BUMP!

[kindred]

[It is the same gamble that Mahmoud Abbas has on a number of occasions said he will make: integrating Hamas into the political system so that after this it will abandon terrorism.]

Yet another step in coming closer to their effort of their land grab and eventual effort to destroy the Jewish nation and Christians therein; this with the help of godless socialist politicians in America, Europe, and Canada and weapons bought from other Arab nations, Russia, and China.
Apparently they still don't believe that the one true and living God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob has brought Israel back to the land and will eventually fulfill the end time prophecies of the grace age using Israel and their enemies to glorify His virgin born Son, Jesus Christ.
Politicians and atheists and those who serve other gods will be in for the surprise of their lives in that day. As the scriptures foretell of God's Christ;

Psalm 2
1Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
5Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
8Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
9Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
10Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
11Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.


The book of Acts identifies the anointed one who will sit in Israel and rule all the earth;

Acts 4:
23And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.
24And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
25Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
26The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
27For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
28For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
29And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
30By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
Most people belive their own truth and will forsake their own mercy by Jesus Christ.

[massgopguy]

A Christian living in the West Bank was at Trinity Church in Boston. When she said Christians are not persecuted by Jews but by Muslims she was boo'd and anti-semetic hysteria took over the church. The pastor of the church asked the representative of the David Foundation to go outside.

[AuH2ORepublican]

That's outrageous. Do you have a link to an article about it so that I can forward it along?

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking the keyword Israel.

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[adam_az]

"...our young men carried away at night and thrown into the Israeli prisons.”

For some reason, it's weird to hear a Catholic priest especially bemoan the loss of young men.