Home > Newsletter > August 2002

PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS

The news of the deadly terrorist attack on a civilian bus at Emmanuel which killed eight came as I was having a traditional Palestinian lunch with a small businessman just outside Bethlehem. The bombing meant that the curfew lifted for a few hours that day would be imposed once again for 24 hours a day. Angrily this Palestinian Christian told me, "I am a 56 year-old man and have 10 employees and their families to care for. How can I pay them if I am stuck in my house under Israeli curfew because of the ugly acts of a handful of people who want to live in darkness. Christ does not live in their hearts. They choose death, not life."

All Palestinians, including tens of thousands of Christians, will be collectively punished by Israel for the acts of the Islamic militants whose religion promises them paradise in return for killing women and children.

Collective punishment is a part of war and Israel is at war. Every nation practices collective punishment during time of war including the United States, with the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima being the extreme examples. In the West Bank, collective punishment comes in the form of twenty-four hour a day curfews.

For Palestinian Christians this collective punishment received from Israel because of the acts of Islamic madmen is particularly bitter because they hold no ill will toward the Jewish people. One Palestinian Christian leader illustrated their frustration with these words, "The peace loving people of Palestine, the Christians, are just as much victims of these brutal attacks as are the Hebrews."

I can testify to the fact that the Palestinian Christians are indeed victims of the Islamic attacks upon Israel. Prior to the Intifada, I organized numerous Christian tours and pilgrimages to the Holy Land. I have dozens of friends and business associates here. I was forced to wait for days to visit some of those men in Bethlehem. They could not come to me nor I to them. Under the rules of the Israeli curfew anyone sighted out of their homes could be shot and all businesses, even Christian businesses, are closed.

The Bethlehem curfew was lifted for a mere two hours around noon on just one weekday while I was in the West Bank. Immediately the streets were full of people desperately trying to buy and sell necessities. As I drove into Bethlehem I passed the 20,000 sq.ft. palace Yasser Arafat built for his family. He has other palaces in Ramala and Gaza. It remains untouched by Israel while Christian homes nearby have been burned out by tank shells. Why? Islamic terrorists fired on Israeli troops from behind the Christian homes, causing return fire.

Near Rachel's tomb my heart sank as the hotel my tour groups had ometimes had lunch in came into view. In the March, 2002 incursion by Israel, members of the Tanzim gangs threw Molotov cocktails at Israeli tanks from the building. It was gutted by Israeli tank shells. Another hotel owned by a Christian businessman is currently occupied by Israeli troops, billeted there to enforce the curfew. This once wealthy and powerful Christian Palestinian businessman is now confined to his home most days, his children sent off to foreign nations for their safety. A military movement stopped me from visiting him.

At Manger Square all of the shops are closed. The one or two tour guides who remain near the Church of the Nativity now offer newsmen "bullet hole" tours of the church. One such guide, Naser Alawy, led me to the various bullet holes in the church and showed me the areas defiled when the church was occupied by Islamic gunmen and surrounded by the Israeli army.

I visited the grotto in the church that is the traditional birthplace of the Prince of Peace and tears came to my eyes with the realization that a gang of thugs would use those hallowed walls as protection from soldiers who would arrest them for their terrorists acts.
Outside, the damage to the church is measured in human misery, not by the number of bullet holes. The single major industry in Bethlehem is tourism. Every tourist shop is closed, most permanently. What hotels are not burnt out or occupied by soldiers are closed. Even the luxury hotel, the Jacir Palace is closed. All the large restaurants built for tour groups are shut down. In Manger Square, Christian men who once sold goods there now beg newsmen for money to feed their children.

As quickly as Christians can move from Bethlehem they do. Their population continues to dwindle and the number of Muslims continues to grow daily. The Azza "refugee" camp established by the United Nations in Bethlehem is the heart of Islamic terror and the principle camp for recruitment of suicide bombers. It is the home of the Tanzim Islamic gangs who rob and rape at will in Bethlehem with the blessings of Yasser Arafat.

Despite the loss of their towns and their dignity I could not find a single Christian Palestinian who placed the total blame for their plight upon Israel. As one Christian woman said to me with tears in her eyes, "We share a common God. We pray for peace for Israel while we pray for bread for our tables."Destroyed hotel in Bethlehem belonged to Christian family