Increasingly beleaguered, Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem have been driven out from their historic city in large numbers. Pressure of Israeli occupation. One of the main goals of the research was to understand the reason behind the depleting Christian population in Palestine. Unfounded claims that Palestinian Christians are leaving because of religious tensions between them and their Muslim brethren are, therefore, irrelevant.
Gaza is another case in point. When Israel occupied Gaza along with the rest of historic Palestine in , an estimated 2, Christians lived in the Strip. However, merely 1, Christians still live in Gaza today. Years of occupation, horrific wars and an unforgiving siege can do that to a community whose historical roots date back two millennia.
Last April, only Christians were granted permits, but on the condition that they must be 55 years of age or older and that they were not allowed to visit Jerusalem. Israel aims at doing more than that. Separating Palestinian Christians from one another, and from their holy sites as is the case for Muslims as well , the Israeli government hopes to weaken the socio-cultural and spiritual connections that give Palestinians their collective identity.
Subscribers receive full access to the archives. Trending: Easter Coronavirus Racism Elections. Middle East. Survey of a thousand local believers finds majority desire a one-state solution, while few complain about religious freedom. Jayson Casper August 4, AM. Image: WikiMedia Commons. Compared to the economy, other cited reasons paled in significance. Only 4 percent blamed corruption, while 3 percent gave a religious explanation.
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Join the conversation on Facebook. Your daily news briefing from the editors of CT. Posted by: Jayson Casper jnjcasper August 4 , Read These Next Related. President approves new sanctions targeting non-Hindus and foreign missionaries. Cover Story. A vocational centre run by a Christian Gazan, Imad Jelda, for the Near East Council of Churches serves boys and young men aged 14 to 23, mainly from poor backgrounds, and all Muslims.
All put their hands up. The NECC vocational centre exemplifies the high level of integration Christians enjoy — for the most part — with the wider and overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim community. Not that their relations have always been trouble-free. In , when the Danish publication of cartoons depicting Muhammad sparked outrage, the Latin church received a series of threatening — and unsigned — faxes.
In October , the Baptist manager of a Christian bookshop was murdered, apparently by Salafist extremists. The Christians are part of our society. Christian women who dress less conservatively than many although by means all of their Muslim counterparts and never cover their hair, can be subject to limitations. Hijabs are compulsory, for example, at the Islamic University of Gaza although not at Al-Azhar, which is favoured by many Christian students. We cannot ignore this. Dana Tarazi, 25, admitted that, while she drew no complaints in the city centre, she usually got a private taxi to work rather than share with other passengers on a route that passes through more conservative areas.
But like some other Christian young women she said that the atmosphere had become more liberal in the past few years. And the majority of friends at her secret Santa party this week would be Muslim. But permits to leave for Bethlehem and Jerusalem at Christmas remain a problem, partly because they divide families. The Israeli military said it had granted permits to adults and to children under
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