Driving Out Christians

Pilgrims to the Holy Land will see in abundance the holy shrines of Our Lord and the rocks of the prophets. These are often referred to as the “Ancient Stones” of the faith.

These ancient stones are animated by the “Living Stones” of the Holy Land: the region’s indigenous Christian community.

Christians of the Holy Land come mainly in three forms: the foreign custodians of shrines and institutions (among Catholics, these are mostly Franciscans); a small number of foreign nationals working in Israel; and the indigenous Palestinian Christians.

While the foreign Christians are mostly transient, the Palestinian Christians have lived in that land for thousands of years — even before there was Christianity. They are the descendants of the first Christians, of the Jews, of the Samaritans, of the Canaanites.

While the foreign Christians are transient, the Palestinian Christians have lived in that land for thousands of years — even before there was Christianity. They are the descendants of the first Christians, of the Jews, of the Samaritans, of the Canaanites.

These Christians, like all Palestinians, have been the people of the land for thousands of years. And now they are disappearing.

Where in 1948, the year the state of Israel was founded, they made up 8% of the region’s total population, they now constitute less than 2% of just the Palestinian populations of Israel and the West Bank.

Large numbers of Palestinian Christians fled or were expelled from Jewish-controlled areas of Palestine during the so-called Arab–Israeli War of 1948. Political and economic pressures have caused further emigration.

The state of Israel makes it no great secret that it wishes this remaining minority to leave. There is no other explanation for the hardships its bureaucracy imposes on Palestinian Christians.

This week we read about the arbitrary yet clearly targeted means by which Israel is keeping apart families in which one spouse is not Palestinian.

This week we read about the arbitrary yet clearly targeted means by which Israel is keeping apart families in which one spouse is not Palestinian.

An Israeli lawyer, Yotam Ben-Hillel, has found the only plausible explanation for the bureaucratic nightmares Israel imposes on such families: “The suspicion arises that the real reason behind the decision [to refuse full residence rights to foreign-born spouses of Palestinians] is a racist-demographic one. Namely, to prevent the inclusion of new people in the population registry in the territories and to encourage others…to leave the West Bank.”

These are the mechanics of ethnic cleansing by non-violent means.

Palestinian Christian families suffer other forms of bureaucratic harassment. For example, a family from, say, Nazareth in Israel is compelled to obtain a permit to visit its relatives in Bethlehem in the West Bank for Christian feasts such as Christmas or Easter.

Usually most of the family will receive such a permit, except almost invariably for one or two members.

Visits by families from Bethlehem to Nazareth are virtually impossible to arrange.

The list of anguishes which Palestinian Christians are subjected to by Israel is long. They include gross human rights violations, including restrictions on freedom of movement and expropriation of ancestral land and property.

The list of anguishes which Palestinian Christians are subjected to by Israel is long. They include gross human rights violations, including restrictions on freedom of movement and expropriation of ancestral land and property.

And they include many small harassments. For example, lately the Israeli Defence Force has closed the road between the West Bank village of Taybeh, whose population is 100% Christian, and the Palestinian capital Ramallah, where many residents of the small town work. A 15-minute commute now takes 45 minutes.

In the face of an accumulation of human rights abuses and harassment, and given the realities of being a minority in a context of oppression and economic privation, one can understand why Palestinian Christians are leaving their beloved ancestral homeland.

But when the Living Stones are all gone, what will become of the Ancient Stones? In effect, they will become sites not of lived Christian faith but religious museums curated by foreigners.

But when the Living Stones are all gone, what will become of the Ancient Stones? In effect, they will become sites not of lived Christian faith but religious museums curated by foreigners.

Pope Francis calls on us to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in faith. This solidarity must also involve our conscientisation to the political struggles our fellow Christians face in the Holy Land, and it must result in our forthright condemnation of those who are creating these hardships.

Who will speak up for these Christians if not their fellow Christians?

Our solidarity must involve support for Palestinian Christians when we go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, by using their services and buying in their shops. To do otherwise is a betrayal of these descendants of the first Christians.

And in solidarity, we must include the Christians of Palestine in our prayers, that peace and justice will come to their land, and with it the return of many families in the Palestinian diaspora.