Yasser
Arafat defied the Christian tradition in Bethlehem, which had been respected
and upheld under Israeli authority, by appointing a Muslim governor and
engineered a Muslim takeover of the city council. He then put his stamp on this
town by converting the Greek Orthodox monastery, next to the Church of the
Nativity, into his official Bethlehem residence.
At great
risk to his life, Pastor Naim Khoury, of the Bethlehem Baptists Church, exposed
the developing threats to Christians within the territories controlled by the
Palestinian Authority. “People are always telling Christians to convert to
Islam.”
His
ministry is based on love and non-violence. He is also a strong advocate for
Zionism based on God’s land covenant with Israel through Abraham.
Because
of his views, his church has been bombed fourteen times, and he has been shot
three times. He has been threatened by the Palestinian Authority to close the
doors of his church which they consider as “illegitimate.”
This
brave Christian priest needs and deserves the active support of church leaders
worldwide. Instead, they boycott him and pick on Israel for their wrath,
ignoring the human rights crimes of the Palestinian leadership whom they openly
support. How twisted is that?
Elias Freij, the Christian mayor of
Bethlehem at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993, warned Israeli Prime
Minister, Yizhak Rabin, to maintain control over his town. “Bethlehem will
become a town of churches devoid of Christians if you transfer control to the
Palestinian Authority.”
Israel caved in to international
pressure, handed over Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority and, for the middle class Christian residents, their lives became threatened, and the mayor’s warning became the current Christian nightmare.
The St. James’s Church Christmas charade
failed to mention the fear that pervades the shrinking Christian population.
The fear of attack by Muslim Palestinians is personified by Joseph Canawati whose
sister, her husband, and three children have fled to America.
“I want to
leave but nobody will buy my business. I feel trapped. We are isolated,” he
complained.
But the Piccadilly church leaders turn a deaf ear to his
plea, or to the fear of death at the
hands of non-Christian Palestinians in Bethlehem, such as that felt by Jeriez
Moussa Amaro whose two sisters, Rada aged 24 and Dunya aged 18, were gunned
down by Palestinian Muslims in their own home. Their crime was to be young,
attractive, and wear Western clothes and no veil.
Sami Qumsieh, the general manager of
“The Nativity,” the only Christian television station in Bethlehem, has
received death threats and visits from armed gunmen. He is now ready to leave.
“As
Christians, we have no future here.”
How sad it is that this church, the
British Methodist Church, and many other Christian leaders are blindsided in
their pursuit of a perceived Jewish enemy that they fail to come to the rescue,
or campaign for, their co-religionists, persecuted by those who they actively and
expensively support.
Barry
Shaw,
Founder
of the Netanya Terror Victims Organisation.
Special Consultant on
Delegitimisation Issues,
The Strategic Dialogue
Center, Netanya Academic College, Israel.
(They really do work
for peace with the Palestinians..)
